Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
CBS
May 1, 2008 CBS Evening News, 6:30 PM
KATIE COURIC: Al Qaeda is looking to become a dominant force in Africa and the U.S. military is doing everything it can to prevent that. Allen Pizzey reports from Uganda.
ALLEN PIZZEY: Ugandan soldiers advance towards a suspicious bunker. Suddenly they come under fire. For many of the young soldiers, it’s the first time they have worked together.
U.S. SOLDIER: Put two rounds in him. Bang, bang!
PIZZEY: This time the rounds are blanks, but they won’t always be. American soldiers are training the Ugandans to combat terrorism, preparing them to go to Somalia to fight Islamic insurgents so the U.S. doesn’t have to.
SGT. DANIEL LEGEER [U.S. Army Trainer]: If we help this country to stabilize now, we teach them how to combat extremism and terrorism now, we won't have to worry about a further escalation of the problem in the future.
PIZZEY: Al Qaeda and other militants have expanded their operations to Africa. Across the top of the entire continent, rebel groups and discontented youth make ideal recruits – a situation made all the more dangerous by growing American dependence on African oil. It's something the U.S. cannot ignore.
LT. COL. GREG JOACHIM [Defense Attache]: You don't even have to go back as far as Afghanistan to see what ungoverned spaces left alone can have an effect on the United States.
PIZZEY: The American counterpunch is a new military command called AFRICOM, and the man in charge is four-star General William Ward.
GEN. WILLIAM WARD [Commander, U.S. Africa Command]: Thank you for being out here to see me this morning.
AFRICAN SOLDIER: Thank you very much for coming.
WARD: Thank you.
PIZZEY: He has been crisscrossing Africa trying to convince skeptical Africans that Washington wants partners, not new military bases. It's been a tough sell.
WARD: Africa Command has been created to recognize the nations of Africa who want to partner with us.
PIZZEY: The hardest job facing AFRICOM is image-making. In the words of a senior U.S. official, "It's open season on U.S. foreign policy. We have to convince people this is not some diabolical George Bush plot."
And this is how they’re doing it. At a remote camp, Gen. Ward watches American soldiers vaccinating cattle – a month-long project to help farmers displaced by a vicious civil war rebuild their lives.
WARD: When our uniformed folks are working with the uniformed folks of these nations, the people can also see that their militaries are here trying to help them, as opposed to not. And those are all very good messages.
That's soft power at work.
PIZZEY: For AFRICOM to succeed, the general has to spend as much time being a diplomat as a soldier. If he does it well enough, the enemy gathering in Africa won't be America's alone.
Allen Pizzey, CBS News, Kisenyi, Uganda.
May 1, 2008 CBS Evening News, 6:30 PM
KATIE COURIC: Al Qaeda is looking to become a dominant force in Africa and the U.S. military is doing everything it can to prevent that. Allen Pizzey reports from Uganda.
ALLEN PIZZEY: Ugandan soldiers advance towards a suspicious bunker. Suddenly they come under fire. For many of the young soldiers, it’s the first time they have worked together.
U.S. SOLDIER: Put two rounds in him. Bang, bang!
PIZZEY: This time the rounds are blanks, but they won’t always be. American soldiers are training the Ugandans to combat terrorism, preparing them to go to Somalia to fight Islamic insurgents so the U.S. doesn’t have to.
SGT. DANIEL LEGEER [U.S. Army Trainer]: If we help this country to stabilize now, we teach them how to combat extremism and terrorism now, we won't have to worry about a further escalation of the problem in the future.
PIZZEY: Al Qaeda and other militants have expanded their operations to Africa. Across the top of the entire continent, rebel groups and discontented youth make ideal recruits – a situation made all the more dangerous by growing American dependence on African oil. It's something the U.S. cannot ignore.
LT. COL. GREG JOACHIM [Defense Attache]: You don't even have to go back as far as Afghanistan to see what ungoverned spaces left alone can have an effect on the United States.
PIZZEY: The American counterpunch is a new military command called AFRICOM, and the man in charge is four-star General William Ward.
GEN. WILLIAM WARD [Commander, U.S. Africa Command]: Thank you for being out here to see me this morning.
AFRICAN SOLDIER: Thank you very much for coming.
WARD: Thank you.
PIZZEY: He has been crisscrossing Africa trying to convince skeptical Africans that Washington wants partners, not new military bases. It's been a tough sell.
WARD: Africa Command has been created to recognize the nations of Africa who want to partner with us.
PIZZEY: The hardest job facing AFRICOM is image-making. In the words of a senior U.S. official, "It's open season on U.S. foreign policy. We have to convince people this is not some diabolical George Bush plot."
And this is how they’re doing it. At a remote camp, Gen. Ward watches American soldiers vaccinating cattle – a month-long project to help farmers displaced by a vicious civil war rebuild their lives.
WARD: When our uniformed folks are working with the uniformed folks of these nations, the people can also see that their militaries are here trying to help them, as opposed to not. And those are all very good messages.
That's soft power at work.
PIZZEY: For AFRICOM to succeed, the general has to spend as much time being a diplomat as a soldier. If he does it well enough, the enemy gathering in Africa won't be America's alone.
Allen Pizzey, CBS News, Kisenyi, Uganda.