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The Carter Doctrine goes global
Progressive, The, Dec, 2004 by Michael T. Klare
Elsewhere in the region, the United States is helping to refurbish an old Soviet air base at Atyrau in Kazakhstan, overlooking the giant Kashagan oil field--partly owned by Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, and Royal Dutch/Shell--in the northeast corner of the Caspian Sea. This base will be used to house a Kazakh "rapid reaction brigade" whose task, according to the Department of State, will be to "enhance Kazakhstan's capability to respond to major terrorist threats to oil platforms or borders." It is likely, moreover, that American forces will also use this base when deploying in the region.
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A similar pattern is now evident in Colombia, where U.S. Special Forces instructors from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, are assisting Bogota's military. They are protecting the vital Cano Limon pipeline--which stretches 480 miles from Occidental Petroleum's oil fields in the northeast to refineries and export facilities on the coast--against recurring attacks by Marxist guerrillas. Here, too, counterterrorism is given as the primary justification for U.S. involvement, but, again, it is the safe delivery of oil that is clearly of concern to Washington. "Lost revenue from guerrilla attacks has severely hampered the GOC's [Government of Colombia's] ability to meet the country's social, political, and security needs," the State Department reported in 2002. By improving pipeline security, the United States will "enhance the GOC's ability to protect a vital part of its energy infrastructure."
In October, moreover, Juan Forero of The New Fork Times reported that U.S. military specialists are advising the Colombian troops assigned to the protection of oil-exploration operations in southern Colombia, long a haven for rebel forces. The United States is becoming part of a major counterinsurgency campaign in Colombia, with all the earmarks of a protracted struggle. In October, Congress approved doubling the number of U.S. advisers there from 400 to 800.
American military involvement in sub-Saharan Africa is at a less advanced stage, but here, too, concern over oil supplies is spurring a major increase in U.S. entanglement. "African oil is of national strategic interest to us," Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner declared in 2002, "and it will increase and become more important as we go forward."
The opening wedge of U.S. involvement in Africa is military assistance and training--an approach that facilitates the establishment of close ties with the region's often dominant military elites. The Department of Defense has sharply increased its aid to the two leading African oil producers--Angola and Nigeria--and further increases are likely in the future. Most of this aid--approximately $300 million in fiscal years 2002-4--is being funneled through the Foreign Military Sales credit program, the Excess Defense Articles surplus-arms giveaway, and the International Military Education and Training program. Other oil producers in Africa, including Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Mali, are also being awarded such assistance.
