Not a bad week for The Empire in Africa

First of all, you've got United States Army War College grad General al-Sisi winning an election in Egypt. al-Sisi is still a youngish man, so by the expected life-span standards of middle-east despots his victory should sew up Egypt for Western interests for the next thirty years or so.

Meanwhile, right next door in oil-rich Libya, US citizen and "rogue" Libyan General Khalifa Haftar is doing God's work imposing order on the 1001 Libyan militias that have run amok over the past three years. Both of our generals are committed to crushing the Muslim Brotherhood, and both have better relations with Israel than they do with the Palestinians.

At the same time, our allies in Kenya and Nigeria have doubled down on the "terrorist threats" in their midst, promising "all-out-war" against al-Shabab and Boko Haram respectively. The call to war was immediately echoed by French colonies Benin, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger.
Declarations of perpetual war can only be music to the ears of AFRICOM boss General David Rodriguez and the Pentagon.

So while it may no longer be a perfect world, rumours of The Empire's imminent demise are greatly exaggerated.

Libya turmoil still Gaddafi's fault

That's the word from US Ambassador Debora Jones.

“There never was a functioning Libyan state per se,” she said. “That weakened state permitted Gadhafi to exploit the situation. … He was like an abusive parent” who squeezed his own people of resources while doling out Libya’s oil revenues on foreign causes and conflicts.

You'd think that three years after NATO's war to destroy the Gaddafi administration there'd be some grown-ups there prepared to take responsibility for the absolute disaster they've created, but some good old honesty is rather too much to expect. Instead, it's all Gaddafi's fault.

As for Gaddafi exploiting that weakened state, I'm not certain that free housing, health care, and education, including $200 millions per year to send Libyans to study at foreign universities worldwide, would meet the standard definition of "exploit".

As for any possibility that Washington might be backing the "rogue" US-Libyan General Haftar, she claims the US is taking a wait-and-see attitude to ascertain what his agenda might be.

Let's see now; the man spent over twenty years living five minutes away from Langley, had no visible means of support, was flown back to Libya by the US in the late stages of the 2011 war... and they don't know what his agenda is?

"Rogue Libyan General" on CIA payroll for thirty years?

There's a story breaking this morning about a rogue General in Libya attempting to overthrow the imaginary government in Tripoli. A certain Major General Khalifa Belqasim Haftar has thus far sacked the parliament buildings and attacked the base of a nearby Islamist militia.

If the name rings a bell it should; this story from BusinessInsider three years ago poses the rhetorical question, is the good General the CIA's man in Libya?

What is known for sure is that whoever's man he may be, he spent a comfortable twenty years or so living the good life in a small Virginia community a short commute from Langley. I know! We mustn't jump to conclusions! Just because a semi-retired Libyan Major General lives near Langley doesn't mean a gosh-darned thing!

Nick Turse recently wrote a story about the pending AFRICOM mission to train up a new Libyan army. Perhaps Maj-Gen Khalifa couldn't wait? There is also information linking him to the CIA sponsored coup that took out the Habre regime in Chad in 1990, which would link him to The Agency even before his sojourn in Virginia.

So while the General may indeed have gone "rogue", it's also possible that he is just following orders... from Langley.