NATO's War on Libya is Directed against China: AFRICOM and the Threat to China's National Energy Sec

[JohnyCanuck]

By William Engdahl

The Washington-led decision by NATO to bomb Gaddafi's Libya into submission over recent months, at an estimated cost to US taxpayers of at least $1 billion, has little if anything to do with what the Obama Administration claims was a mission to "protect innocent civilians." In reality it is part of a larger strategic assault by NATO and by the Pentagon in particular to entirely control China's economic achilles heel, namely China's strategic dependence on large volumes of imported crude oil and gas. Today China is the world's second largest imported of oil after the United States and the gap is rapidly closing.

If we take a careful look at a map of Africa and also look at the African organization of the new Pentagon Africa Command—AFRICOM—the pattern that emerges is a careful strategy of controlling one of China's most strategically important oil and raw materials sources.

NATO's Libya campaign was and is all about oil. But not about simply controlling Libyan high-grade crude because the USA is nervous about reliable foreign supplies. It rather is about controlling China's free access to long-term oil imports from Africa and from the Middle East. In other words, it is about controlling China itself.

snip

The involvement of Chinese energy and raw materials companies across Africa had become a major cause of alarm in Washington where an attitude of malign neglect had dominated Washington Africa policy since the Cold War era. As its future energy needs became obvious several years ago China began a major African economic diplomacy which reached a crescendo in 2006 when Beijing literally rolled out the red carpet to heads of more than forty African states and discussed a broad range of economic issues. None were more important for Beijing than securing future African oil resources for China's robust industrialization.

http://www.modernghana.com/news/352743/1/natos-war-on-libya-is-directed-against-china-afri.html

[Scuba]

1. US policy toward Africa explained...

<img src="" title="Hosted by imgur.com" />

[leftstreet]

3. +1

That's an excellent graphic!

:thumbsup:

[JohnyCanuck]

2. To tell the truth....

this explanation makes way more sense than the "we have to bomb them to protect civilians" excuse offered up by crocodile tear shedding, NATO politicians and officials. But as anyone who reads my sig line can tell, I am a cynic.

[Arctic Dave]

4. Dude! WTF! No shit, I said this from day one.

Why the fuck do you think africom was set up to begin with.


Note:
This is not intended for the poster but my sentiment in general.

[JohnyCanuck]

5. kick n/t

[malaise]

6. Duh!!! n/t