We must avoid US in our military schemes

By Nyasigo Kornel

There is secret memorandum of understanding that has been sent by United States (US) Embassy to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Corporation which if immediately signed will allow US military to Tanzania.

The memorandum has remained unsigned since its delivery.

An official from the Ministry for Foreign affairs and International Corporation whose name is enclosed for anonymity said that the Ministry has been very reluctant to sign the memorandum fearing conditions that are stated within the memorandum.

The secret memorandum states some conditions that while they will carry training and their operations within the country, they may import or export out of Tanzania anything without inspection and that such importation shall be out of license, custom duties, taxes and restriction of any kind.

That secret memorandum wants that once signed US military shall have freedom of movement meanwhile they may enter the country and exit using US identification while Tanzania will have no mandate to exercise criminal jurisdiction over US personnel while in the country.

It also alleged that US military shall use radio spectrum from US Department of Defense defined in their 1992 acts.

The official raised queries to why should American want to penetrate their military operation in the form of military aid to Tanzania?

The United States provides training to African military forces through a variety of programs. Along with the training provided in Africa through the Africa Contingency Operations Training Assistance (ACOTA) and Africa Regional Peacekeeping Program (ARP) ARP programs, U.S. troops conduct joint training exercises in Africa and the Pentagon brings African military officers to the United States for training at U.S. military installations through the International Military Education and Training Program (IMET) program.

In May 2002, 1,000 American troops participated in a month-long joint amphibious assault exercise on the Kenyan coast with Kenyan, Tanzanian, and Ugandan troops. In August 2002, U.S. military medical personnel and Special Forces troops held a two-week medical training exercise, known as MEDFLAG 02, in Entebbe and Sorotti, Uganda. And in September 2001, 200 U.S. U.S. Air Force personnel went to the Waterkloof Air Force Base in South Africa to participate in the first bilateral training exercise with South African forces.

Kenya faced the same problem in 2003 when the North Eastern Province (NEP) residents objected US Military presence publicly to the head of all Diplomatic Corps in Kenya saying that their province has been enjoying an unprecedented atmosphere of security with no terrorism incident occurring, meanwhile the residents would like to maintain that peace, any US military presence to their province would lead to AI-Qaedah operatives coming in to engage the US military.

There is noticed fear that has been brought by the awareness that US determination and a dec1ared mission of striking assumed terrorist cells inside Somalia and generally uprooting so called terrorism from the Horn ofAfrica can create terrorist engagement to the neighborhood countries. There are a lot to fear on the presence of US military in Tanzania, one being allowing them to import or export anything.

How many times US military and Central Intelligence Agency have been involved in the illegal trafficking of drug abuse and arms to South America? Allowing US military to import and export anything without inspection may risk security of the nation.

President George Bush has been noticed using abusive words against African regimes that are against their policies, this is also used as an attempt to build ‘unpopular Rule’ to the regimes that he considers hostile to his government.

On reading a book ‘The Pentagon's New Map’ by Thomas P. M. Barnett, a strategist for the Navy and Defense Department, in which he talks about America's role in the world, with concepts such as exporting rule-sets to the world, and dividing the world into "core" and "gap" countries.

Overall, what he presented challenged some of my assumptions about America's role in the world. I was wondering if the same ends he describes, example peace in our lifetime, could be achieved in more freedom-oriented ways that you have figured out.

Thomas Barnett has never bothered to examine the history of government programs and the sad record of failure after failure after failure. It isn't just the War on Drugs or the War on Poverty or the War on Illiteracy that has failed to fulfill its promises.

There hasn't been a single American war in this century or the last in which the U.S. government actually achieved the results that were promised when it went to war.

Routers of 18 April 2007 published a story written by Cal Jennings with title “Bush says Stop Violence in Darfur or else… President Bush warned Sudan's president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, on that Wednesday that he has one last chance to stop violence in Darfur or else… When Sudan's president asked what "or else" meant, President Bush replied, "The United States will impose sanctions and consider other punitive options."

Bush as reported by Routers says that he has decided to give U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon more time to pursue diplomacy in a speech at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, Bush's favorite hangout, that his patience is limited as his attention span. Bush adds, "I get to decide, because I'm the decider."

Bush accuses the Sudanese of painting military planes white to disguise them as United Nations or African Union aircraft when they should clearly be painted black. Bush said in a statement at the Holocaust Museum, "Everyone knows that white is a good guy color. You're the bad guys. Your jets should be painted black. Ain't you guys ever watched any Westerns?"

Bush was at the Holocaust Museum admiring Hitler's work. He told reporters, "Just wait until you see my Holocost Museum. That Hitler guy was a pansy. He was gay! I'll show you a Holocost!"

Experts are still speculating on how President Bush was able to pronounce the words "sanctions,” punitive," and "holocaust" properly.

After hearing Bush's statement about the planes, Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Jesse Jackson, and the NAACP demanded that Bush be fired for using racist language.

Dennis Asunga is human right activist who has worked with Red Cross international in more than seven demolished countries as a result of war on democracy and US attempt to extend its power to the world around.