US troops to Niger: A new stage in the scramble for Africa

http://www.opednews.com/articles/US-troops-to-Niger-A-new-by-Bill-van-Auken-130227-276.html

US troops to Niger: A new stage in the scramble for Africa
By Bill van Auken
OpEdNews Op Eds 2/27/2013 at 12:18:53

President Barack Obama's terse notification to Congress last week that American troops are being deployed to the northwest African nation of Niger confirms that a whole new stage in the imperialist recolonization of Africa is now in progress.

The dispatch of the first 100 troops--with hundreds more reportedly to follow--is bound up with a deal signed last month between Washington and the Niger government allowing the US military to set up a drone base on the country's territory, creating the conditions for spreading the Obama administration's remote-control killing spree throughout the region.

The buildup of US forces in Niger comes in the immediate wake of last month's French intervention in neighboring Mali, carried out with critical US logistical and intelligence support, and aimed, in the words of French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, at the "total reconquest" of the former colony.

Both Paris and Washington have justified their military incursions into the African continent in the name of defeating Al Qaeda and associated organizations in Africa. British Prime Minister David Cameron chimed in last month, warning that the prosecution of this war in Africa could span "decades."