by Kofi Thompson

Created on: October 05, 2008

JUST HOW MUCH IS THE U.S. AFRICA COMMAND'S MEDIA-SPEND IN GHANA, IF ANY?
U.S.Army General William "Kip" Ward is a noble-looking and highly intelligent man. He is just the sort of leader any African who cares about the progress of the continent, would love to see attending an African Union heads of state summit meeting - as his or her nation's leader.

He is more like a diplomat than a military man - and speaks like one, too. On October 1, 2007, he made history by becoming the first commander of the US Africa Command - a sub-unified command under the US European Command. On October 1, 2008 it finally became an independent unified command, responsible for US Department of Defense operations in the continent.

General Ward was commissioned as an infantry officer in June 1971, according to his biography posted at Africom's website:
http://www.africom.mil/ward.asp.

He has had a long and distinguished military career: "His military education includes the Infantry Officer Basic and Advanced courses, US Army Command and General Staff College, and US Army War College. He holds a Masters of Arts Degree in Political Science from Pennsylvania State University and a Bachelors of Art Degree in Political Science from Morgan State University. His military service has included overseas tours in Korea, Egypt, Somalia, Bosnia, Israel, two tours in Germany, and a wide variety of assignments in the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii."

A world away, thousands of miles from our continent, in Afghanistan, his brother officer, General David H. Petraeus, leads America 's fight against Al Qaeda and their Afghan allies the resurgent Taliban.

A little-known fact is that part of the funding for the US military's "surge" in Iraq was devoted to "information warfare." For those interested in perusing it further, this is the link to Africom's splendid website: http://www.africom.mil/index.asp.

Writing in the Friday, October 3, 2008; edition of the Washington Post, staff writers Karen De Young and Walter Pincus said: "The Defense Department will pay private U.S. contractors in Iraq up to $300 million over the next three years to produce news stories, entertainment programs and public service advertisements for the Iraqi media in an effort to "engage and inspire" the local population to support U.S. objectives and the Iraqi government. The new contracts - awarded last week to four companies - will expand and consolidate what the U.S. military calls "information/psychological operations" in Iraq

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