LRA and my unprinted letter to the LA Times

Over the weekend, the LRA and Ugandan government agreed to a permanent cease-fire which will hopefully bring an end to hostilities. The LRA has agreed to no longer recruit or rearm in exchange for senior people being considered for political, diplomatic, and military posts. As was discussed last week, a settlement was already agreed upon for the adjudication of alleged war crimes by a specially created branch of the Ugandan High Court and not the ICC. The sole remaining issue to be worked out is the integration of LRA fighters into the Ugandan army which will be based on rank and experience. Thus, there is an expectation that peace will finally come to Uganda.

As I discussed in the previous post, Rosa Brooks wrote an editorial about AFRICOM in last Thursday's LA Times, the following is the letter I sent to the LA Times which was not printed.

In alluding to the newly-created AFRICOM as a Bush administrationproject to insert the United States into a neo-colonial scramble forAfrica ("Bush's Africa burden" Opinion, Feb. 21), Rosa Brooks raisesdubious concerns over what was simply a long overdue reorganization ofU.S. Unified Combatant Commands. Recognizing that in the 21st centurygreater U.S. attention will be focused on Africa, the Pentagon shiftedthe area of responsibility for the 53 African countries to onemilitary command instead of the previous three. A new strategy thatincreases the role of diplomatic and civilian programs alongsidemilitary and security operations should be commended for itsinnovation, not have its motives questioned. The creation of acombatant command for Africa does not imply taking up a Kipling-esquewhite man's burden anymore than did the creation of EUCOM, PACOM,CENTCOM, or SOUTHCOM.