The “Soft War”: Educating minds and
nurturing bodies of putative enemies 

In the post-9/11 world it is thoroughly understandable that the United States should reorganize its military, diplomatic, and military resources to engage, understand, and, if required, contest militant Islam.
Since those tragic events in 2001, the United States has initiated wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; it has seized, detained, and interrogated "enemy combatants" in Guantanamo, Cuba, and other clandestine locations around the world; and it has radically reformed domestic terrorism laws in an effort to detect, deter, and destroy enemies of the United States.
But is the strategy comprehensive, or is it overly skewed toward military initiatives without taking into account measures that are needed to win the "soft war" of educating the minds and nurturing the bodies of putative enemies of the US? As Ricardo Rene Laremont, professor of political science and sociology at the State University of New York argued, the contention here is that military investments are necessary and can be prudent. US investments in education and health care overseas, however, which are equally important in this "soft war," seem to be unsatisfactorily under-funded.
Since 9/11 and the apparent permanent reversal of military fortune in the war in Iraq, it has become abundantly clear to petroleum analysts around the world that the Middle East, a region that serves the world as a critical source for petroleum, is either unstable, at risk, or inaccessible for investment and exploitation.
Saudi Arabia, the world's largest depository of petroleum reserves, survives for the moment yet it suffers from internal dissension and the possibility of the eventual demise of the regime. Iraq and its important source of petroleum at Basra may sell petroleum to world consumers but that source of petroleum is irregular and because of its location it may eventually come under the tutelage of Iranian political or economic forces.
America's consistent failure to engage in diplomacy with Iran since 1979 means that China has primary access to petroleum there. Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi all are protected by an American military umbrella meaning that--at least for the moment-these sources of petroleum are comparatively secure.
The general lack of security in the Middle East means that the US and other consumers of petroleum must necessarily look to Africa for alternate sources of petroleum. Indonesia and Russia may also serve as providers to western markets but, given the proximity of the west coast of Africa to western European and American markets, Africa's petroleum necessarily must be considered an alternative to Middle Eastern oil. It is in Africa where petroleum and Islam show a kind of mix.
Because of the instability in the Middle East, the US has come up with a military strategy to deal with the question of Islamic terrorism and the protection of petroleum assets in Africa. To cite just one example of this reorientation in strategy,(as indicated by Ricardo Rene Laremont) in May 2003, NATO Supreme Commander James Jones said that the Navy's Sixth Fleet that is based in Naples, Italy, would eventually "... spend half the time going down the west coast of Africa." So Africa has become a critical area of geopolitical concern for reasons of religious activism and petroleum.
The US has two plans for military joint training operations on the African continent. The first is the Global Peace Operations Initiative begun during fiscal year 2006. That initiative provided $100.4 million in FY 2006 and requested $102.6 million for FY 2007 to train and equip battalions and specialty units in Senegal, Ghana, Benin, Mali, Kenya, Malawi, Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, Gabon and Nigeria. The amount involved here is very modest. On average the amount dedicated per country averages close to $800,000 per recipient. (Ricardo Rene Laremont)
Of more direct interest to the subject here is the Trans-Saharan Counter-Terrorism Initiative, (TSCTI) which is an outgrowth of the Pan-Sahel Initiative (PSI). The PSI was started right after 9/11 and spent approximately $16 million during 2002-03 to deploy teams of Special Operations soldiers to Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger to provide counter-terrorism training and equipment. The big media coup in this initiative occurred when GSPC militants in Chad were tracked down during 2004.
The TSCTI received $3 million dollars in funding during FY 2005 and was scheduled to receive $100 million yearly from FY 2007 through FY 2011, resulting in a total of $500 million. Troops to be trained under this program would include Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Algeria, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia.
It is clear that this new program in its expanded form takes cognizance of the double nexus between maintaining state stability and security and maintaining access to petroleum and natural gas sources. The inclusion of Algeria, Nigeria and Tunisia and the design of the new military training program prove that Department of Defense planners understand the need to be engaged both militarily and socially in these key countries. The new program is multi-departmental, involving the State Department in airport security, the Treasury Department in money laundering and USAID in educational and health programs.

(To be continued)