Africa: forgiving debt is nice, administering the security system is better

■"U.S. And Britain Agree On Relief To Poor Nations: Writing Off $16.7 Billion; Plan to Release 18 Nations From Obligations Gives Blair a Timely Lift," by Elizabeth Becker and Richard W. Stevenson, New York Times, 10 June 2005, p. A1.

■"As Africans Join Iraqi Insurgency, U.S. Counters With Military Training in Their Lands," by Eric Schmitt, New York Times, 10 June 2005, p. A10.

This posting is essentially a redux of one I just did: great for Old Core to plus up its economic aid to Africa, but unless it does the same or better on security help it all adds up to nothing.

Same noble intentions cited in the aid piece (all worthy), but Schmitt's piece is a lot more informative: citing Africa as the strategic rear of the Middle East-centric global Salafi jihadist movement. I've been briefing the "tactical seam" between Central Command in the Middle East and European Command's ownership of most of Africa (Centcom owns the Horn) for roughly a year now. It's a bit I developed while sitting down with Centcom's policy planners last summer at MacDill in Tampa (where I'm heading now). So as that strategic rear gains importance, expect the U.S. to get involved in more and more military-to-military programs in Africa. What drives this process is the rising importance of African jihadists showing up and fighting in Iraq (roughly one out of every four we catch).

Naturally, after cutting their teeth in Iraq, these jihadists are ready to rumble on their home turf, a phenomenon we've seen already unfold in Saudi Arabia.

So our previously tiny expenditures on such military training in Africa have grown to surpasss $100 million a year.

Who does the bulk of this training? Right now it's Special Operations Forces.

This plus-up in military aid is described by one senior Bush official as "get[ting] ahead of the power curve."

Indeed. My basic premise still holds: succeed against the jihadists in the Middle East and you take that fight south over time. You want to get the Pentagon to Africa fastest, cheer on the Big Bang and the occupation in Iraq. Africa needs it to succeed even worse than we do.