U.S.Army General William “Kip” Ward is a noble-looking and highly intelligent man. He is just the sort of leader any African who cares about the progress of the continent, would love to see attending an African Union heads of state summit meeting - as his or her nation’s leader.
He is more like a diplomat than a military man - and speaks like one, too. On October 1, 2007, he made history by becoming the first commander of the US Africa Command - a sub-unified command under the US European Command. On October 1, 2008 it finally became an independent unified command, responsible for US Department of Defense operations in the continent.
General Ward was commissioned as an infantry officer in June 1971, according to his biography posted at Africom’s website:
http://www.africom.mil/ward.asp.
He has had a long and distinguished military career: “His military education includes the Infantry Officer Basic and Advanced courses, US Army Command and General Staff College, and US Army War College. He holds a Masters of Arts Degree in Political Science from Pennsylvania State University and a Bachelors of Art Degree in Political Science from Morgan State University. His military service has included overseas tours in Korea, Egypt, Somalia, Bosnia, Israel, two tours in Germany, and a wide variety of assignments in the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii.”
A world away, thousands of miles from our continent, in Afghanistan , his brother officer, General David H. Petraeus, leads America ’s fight against Al Qaeda and their Afghan allies the resurgent Taliban.
A little-known fact is that part of the funding for the US military’s “surge” in Iraq was devoted to “information warfare.” For those interested in perusing it further, this is the link to Africom’s splendid website: http://www.africom.mil/index.asp.
Writing in the Friday, October 3, 2008; edition of the Washington Post, staff writers Karen De Young and Walter Pincus said: “The Defense Department will pay private U.S. contractors in Iraq up to $300 million over the next three years to produce news stories, entertainment programs and public service advertisements for the Iraqi media in an effort to "engage and inspire" the local population to support U.S. objectives and the Iraqi government. The new contracts -- awarded last week to four companies -- will expand and consolidate what the U.S. military calls "information/psychological operations" in Iraq far into the future, even as violence appears to be abating and U.S. troops have begun drawing down.”
Readers can look up the rest of this fascinating article online, by following this link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/02/AR2008100204223.html?wpisrc=newsletter&sub=AR.
A thorough search at Africom’s own website, failed to reveal any such budget for its operations in Africa. Perhaps the question an Nrumaist and ultra-nationalist like me ought to ask is: is Africom engaged in the same kind of operations reported in The Washington Post article and paying huge sums to sections of the Ghanaian media for the same ends the US military seeks in Iraq in the war it is fighting in Iraq to protect US interests in the Middle East region?
Would that I was a fly on the wall at some of the meetings General Ward has held in Ghana with our political leaders and our security chiefs. I wonder too, whether the many newspapers sponsored by our own secret services have been beneficiaries of the munificence of the U.S. Defense Department – as they seem to have a bottomless pit to draw their propaganda budget from!
Naturally, in a few decades hence, patriotic and discerning Ghanaians alive then will get to read the declassified US State Department and Defense Department documents on the subject. If I am in heaven by then, I’ll read them avidly - to know whom amongst our media sold their consciences: and worked for a foreign power against the national interest of our homeland Ghana.
Hmmm Ghana - ayeasem oo: asem ebaba debi ankasa! May God bless and protect our homeland Ghana, always. Long live freedom! Long live Ghana !
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