Haruna.
US Military's Africa Command Gets New Chief
Al Pessin
|
Stuttgart
March 09, 2011
Photo: AP
Outgoing Africa Command commander US
General William Ward, left, shakes hands with his successor US commander
General Carter Ham during the AFRICOM change of command ceremony in
Sindelfingen near Stuttgart, March 9, 2011The founding commander of the U.S. military's Africa Command has
retired after a nearly 40-year military career, saying the role of
militaries in the current North African unrest is evidence of the value
of building the kind of relationships the command was established to
promote.
It was an emotional ceremony for General William Ward
as he completed more than three years at Africom. He told
several-hundred people at the change-of-command ceremony that his
operation has expanded military cooperation with many African countries,
including new joint military exercises.
In recent weeks, Africom
has been engaged in its first operational assignment, helping to
evacuate foreigners from Libya and delivering humanitarian supplies to
refugees in Tunisia. The command has also had a key role in preparing
what officials call a "full range of options" in case President Barack
Obama orders military intervention in Libya.
But General Ward
said the routine work in Africa by U.S. troops - training and
humanitarian assistance - has convinced many African skeptics the new
command would not be a threat. He said what he called "sustained
engagement" has proved its value dramatically in recent weeks.
"There
is no greater evidence of that today than what's going on the northern
tier of this continent. Where we have had those sustained
relationships, we see militaries behaving in a way that contributes to
the stability of a society as opposed to not,” Ward said. “And where
that has not been the case, militaries are contributing to that
additional instability."
Ward was apparently referring to Egypt,
where a military very close to the United States acted with restraint
and facilitated a smooth transition, and Libya, where a military cut off
from the United States has fractured, and some units are firing on
their own people.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the
gathering General Ward and his team demonstrated the creation of Africa
Command would not result in more U.S. military action on the continent
or cause the militarization of U.S. policy toward Africa. He also
referred to the uprisings in the North.
"In North Africa, we see
people fighting for political change from a revolution in Libya to
Southern Sudan, a new nation coming into being. Throughout the region,
nations are struggling to give their fast-growing populations liberty,
basic necessities and greater opportunities while fighting the scourges
of terrorism, corruption and piracy. Africom must continue its role in
promoting this progress, preventing conflict and bolstering basic
stability," Gates said.
The new commander of Africa Command,
General Carter Ham, said he intends to maintain the approach General
Ward established. "The longer I serve, the more I believe relationships
with our partners are what really matters and really enables us to
achieve our objectives. I believe we are most successful when we help
find African solutions to African security challenges. And I know we
will face many challenges. Some of those we can see very clearly today,
while others will emerge in unexpected ways and in unexpected places,"
he said.
General Ham has been the commander of U.S. Army forces
in Europe for the past two-and-a-half years, and has had a variety of
command and Pentagon assignments.
Most recently, he co-led the
defense department's analysis of the potential impact of allowing
homosexuals to serve openly in the U.S. military. That process led to
the approval of a law that is expected to lift the ban this year, once
the military services have conducted a planned training program.
Africa
Command supervises all U.S. military engagement in Africa, except for
Egypt, but it has no operational troops assigned to it, as other U.S.
regional commands do. It borrows troops from other areas, particularly
Europe, when it has training or other missions to perform. It is also
responsible for the joint U.S. military task force in Djbouti.
The
command has a unique military and civilian structure, designed to
enable multi-disciplinary interaction with the continent's 53
countries. The command has about 2,000 people, half of them civilians,
and only 100 stationed permanently at cooperation offices in African
countries.