Big Game in Africa . . .

FABIUS MAXIMUS and The Tom's Dispatch gang can get a little hysterical, but it's a look at what Uncle Sugar thinks is necessary to be attended to in Africa, and is worthy of your attention. 

Is it possible that the U.S. military is present in more countries and more places now than at the height of the Cold War? It’s true that the U.S. is reducing its forces and giant bases in Europe and that its troops are out of Iraq (except for that huge, militarized embassy in Baghdad). On the other hand, there’s that massive ground, air, and naval build-up in the Persian Gulf, the Obama administration’s widely publicized “pivot” to Asia (including troops and ships), those new drone bases in the eastern Indian Ocean region, some movement back into Latin America (including a new base in Chile), and don’t forget Africa, where less than a decade ago, the U.S. had almost no military presence at all. Now, as TomDispatch Associate Editor Nick Turse writes in the latest in his “changing face of empire” series, U.S. special operations forces, regular troops, private contractors, and drones are spreading across the continent with remarkable (if little noticed) rapidity.

China has been courting various African regimes for over a couple of decades, now, and as a result, essentially, Kipling's Great Game continues with US and China replacing Russia and England, with Africa as the object of desire replacing central Asia. It's so new and improved, some pundits are calling it The New Great Game. I wonder what the MI6 Africa budget is? And India's RAW (CIA) is probably to be found all along the east coast as well as the Pakistani Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence and the Iranian MISIRI, and of course, Mossad, as African wealth is gazed upon by the covetous, and concerned governments get involved. Maybe Stevie will have CSIS try to set up a spy network?

When everyone is dead, the Great Game is finished. Not before.

—Rudyard Kipling, Kim

"If we hadn't a thorough understanding, I (British lion) might almost be tempted to ask what you (Russian bear) are doing there with our little playfellow (Persian cat)."