Murtha: U.S. Should Use Diplomacy, Not Military, in Africa

Nov. 30 (EIRNS)—In comments at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where he visited wounded U.S. troops and had Thanksgiving dinner with top U.S. military leaders in Europe, House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee chair John Murtha (D-Pa.) said the U.S. should use diplomacy, not the military, in Africa.

"We can't win these wars militarily. Nobody wants us over there. I think Liberia wants us. Nobody else.... You can't just throw money at it, and you can't win it militarily. It has to be done diplomatically. So I've been trying to shift money, and convince the people that make the decision on where the money goes that more money should go to the State Department for those kind of things," according to the political and news blog wizbangblog.

The Bush regime sought $389 million for Africom, the United States Africa Command, for fiscal 2009. Earlier this year, during the budgetary process, the subcommittee Murtha chairs recommended providing Africom barely over a fifth of that, $80.6 million, for fiscal 2009. In the end, Africom's budget was approved at $266 million. Africom was launched as a fully operational command on Oct. 1, a month before Barack Obama's election.

Vince Crawley, a spokesman for Africom, noted recently that Defense Secretary Robert Gates has already spoken about the need for the State Department to get a bigger share of the funding.

Ban Ki-moon Backs Soros on Sending Euro Troops to D.R. Congo

Nov. 30 (EIRNS)—UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has picked up on George Soros' "humanitarian" call to send an "interim" European military force to the Democratic Republic of Congo (D.R.C.). On Thanksgiving day, Soros and others issued an open letter calling for the EU to send military troops until the United Nations can assemble the 3,000 additional "peacekeepers" that the Security Council has approved.

Belgium, the former colonial power of Congo, and France, last month proposed sending troops to North-Kivu province, to support the humanitarian efforts of the UN Mission in the D.R.C. This province in eastern Congo, which Soros and his controller Lord Mark Malloch-Brown of the British Foreign Office have suddenly decided to call a humanitarian crisis (more than 5 million people have died in eastern Congo since the second Ugandan and Rwandan invasion in 1998, which has led to an effective partition of Congo). Belgian officials statements have expressed skepticism that an EU force can be mobilized. After the French proposal, a spokesman for Soros's International Crisis Group, Neil Campbell, said Nov. 6 that the EU should commit troops, but was adamant that they should not come from France. Campbell maintained that a French presence would antagonize Rwanda, which backs the anti-Congo rebels led by Laurent Nkunda, a former military intelligence figure in the Rwandan army, at which time he was a close associate of Rwanda's present President Paul Kagame. Campbell said that since France backed the previous Rwandan government, which is charged with genocide during the civil war in Rwanda, France should not be involved. At the time the French proposal for intervention into Congo was made, President Sarkozy pledged full support for Congo President Joseph Kabila, while Malloch-Brown is blaming the D.R. Congo government and the rebels for the humanitarian crisis.

Other EU countries, including Germany, oppose the military support, and want to back humanitarian organizations and political mediation, instead.

AFP reports that the question of sending EU troops will be discussed this week at the ministerial level at NATO headquarters in Brussels, as well the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe meeting in Helsinki.

Zimbabwe Declares Cholera National Emergency

Dec. 8 (EIRNS)—The government of Zimbabwe had declared a national emergency and called for international aid over the outbreak of cholera which has killed 565 people and is spreading to South Africa. The crisis was preprogrammed by the British-Soros orchestrated siege of the country to overthrow the government of President Robert Mugabe.

The state-run daily Herald wrote, "The government yesterday declared the cholera outbreak ... and the malfunctioning of the central hospitals as national emergencies and appealed to the donor community for assistance to alleviate the situation."

Zimbabwe Health Minister David Perirenyatwa, according to today's South Africa's Mail and Guardian said, "The emergency appeal will help us to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with the current socio-economic environment. Our central hospitals are literally not functioning. Our staff is demotivated and we need your support to ensure that they start coming to work, and our health system is revived."

The outbreak of cholera is results from the collapse of the water and sewage systems. The water supply in the capital Harare was suspended for 48 hours because of lack of aluminum sulfate used to purify water. It is now feared that cholera could break out in South Africa because the Limpopo River which separates South Africa from Zimbabwe has been tested positive for the vibrio cholera bacteria.

Soros, Malloch-Brown, Lead Battle To Control Obama Africa Policy

Dec. 5 (EIRNS)—The British Foreign Office's Lord Mark Malloch-Brown and George Soros are attempting to use several manipulated crises in Africa, to force Obama to adopt a military interventionist approach towards Africa, as opposed to Obama's indicated preference for diplomatic solutions. There is a conflict within the Obama team over which approach to take. Although Soros was a big contributor to Obama's election, this policy decision is by no means locked up. The two most likely conflicts which are candidates for military intervention are D.R. Congo and Sudan.

The conflict in eastern D.R. Congo, which has been dragging on since the Uganda-Rwanda 1998 invasion, with deadly consequences, since a settlement forced on Congo by then-Undersecretary of State for Africa, and current nominee for UN Ambassador Susan Rice, in 1999 resulted in a permanent de facto partition of Congo, is now be portrayed as a humanitarian disaster which can only be settled by a military intervention, because the army is portrayed as being as guilty as the invading forces, and their proxies, such as Laurent Nkunda. British-backed Nkunda has also announced his intent to overthrow the elected government of President Joseph Kabila. No mention is made about the fact that the Congo army in the region has many Rwandans, and Rwandan agents, who were inserted during efforts over the last ten years to absorb them in the army, in hopes of pacifying the situation.

The battle within the Obama camp for and against military intervention is the fiercest is on the question of Sudan. Even the well-known, ardent critic of the Sudan government, John Prendergast, who was considered close to the Obama campaign, is against military intervention; referring to Sudan, Congo, and Somalia, he said: "We don't have the capacity to pacify these places militarily." He added: "We need political solutions."

Zimbabwe is not a military conflict, but Malloch-Brown said on BBC that "Mugabe is beyond the pale," and Prime Minister Raila Odinga in Kenya are pushing for an armed African Union peacekeeping force to be sent to Zimbabwe. The cholera epidemic there is being used to justify the drive for regime change.

The group trying to steer Obama to adopt a regime-change approach toward Zimbabwe, are adopting the same approach as the Bush Administration. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said: "It is well past time for [President] Robert Mugabe to leave," and criticized the efforts of former South African President Thabo Mbeki to mediate an end of the political stalemate in the country as a "sham."