Reader Perspective On The Significance Of The Gabon Coup

Earlier today a reader with first hand experience in Gabon provided a bit of perspective on the role of France in Africa, and in Gabon in particular. Here is an anonymized version of that communication:

I’m writing because I once spent time in Gabon and observed its clear subservient role to France. This was in the early 2000s. I doubt much has changed since then.

Although the Left and West continue to denounce 17th and 18th century colonialism, in fact they conveniently ignored current overt French colonialism. In fact, Africa remains a 21st Colonial power throughout sub-Sahara Africa. The UN, the US Government and Leftist activists worldwide conveniently ignore this reality.

French forts remain adjacent to most governmental powers in the former French colonies, including in adjacent to the Presidential palace in Lieberville. Paris provides strict economic controls in these “former” French colonies that force the national governments to award preferential treatment to French companies. Paris’ French Department is huge.

A coup in Gabon would be the next shoe to drop in what is appearing to be a sweeping African revolt against Macron and the West.

My surmise is that, absent outside military intervention, these coups will resolve peacefully. While France and the US are attempting to instigate armed conflict between the ECOWAS countries and the countries that are rebelling against the West’s neocolonial regime in Africa, the reason those attempts to set Africans to killing Africans for the preservation of Western Empire has so far failed is because the major ECOWAS countries—such as Nigeria and Ivory Coast—all have internal security problems of their own. Meanwhile, with each passing day and no military action, the coup government in Niger strengthens its hold on power and support from neighboring countries. But the countries across the Sahel all have their own serious security problems—their attention will likely be turned inward.

The coup in Gabon appears to me to strengthen the hand of the new regime in Niger. Not because Gabon is able to offer military support, but because the bid for full independence in Gabon serves to spread the resources of the West ever more thinly and emboldens other countries in the region to assert their interests. This, I think, may be what’s driving the spate of coups, all aimed at freeing these countries from French domination. The advent of China to Africa in search of natural resources has awakened African countries to the reality that they have marketable resources for which there is a demand, and if France won’t pay a fair price for those resources China will. That realization has led to strong resentment among African nations at the way they’ve been used.

I’ve seen no solid claims that Russia and China have instigated any of these coups, per se. On the other hand, there seems little doubt that Russia has taken full advantage of African resentment against the West. The result is that between crazy Neocon policies (the de-industrialization of Germany, for example) and the seeming collapse of France’s overseas economic sphere of influence, Europe is slipping into an economic downturn from which there will be no short term recovery. Perhaps France could have held things together in Africa a little longer—if it weren’t wrestling with its involvement in Ukraine. Now the pressure within Europe for a settlement with Russia will increase even more. In the meantime, Russia’s global influence in the sphere of natural resource production continues to expand rapidly, and Putin gets to sit back and watch the internal squabbling of the West.

Interestingly, there’s an article today at Zerohedge that plays into all this. The Neocon masters of our country are clearly fearful that Trump will return to the White House and might do something that would be enormously popular with Americans: End the war on Russia, just as he has now promised. So the latest genius Neocon ploy is to tie the hands of any future president, Republican or Democrat—right, the Neocons are nothing if not party agnostic. It’s the “Israel model”. They think they can force Putin to surrender to their demands by pledging money on a long term basis:

Biden Looks To Prevent Future President From Ending Ukraine War

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

The Biden administration is working to reach a deal with Ukraine for long-term military support to keep backing the war with Russia that would be difficult for a future president to exit, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

…

The idea of the long-term commitment is to show Russia that it can’t wait out the Biden administration. The Journal report reads:

"Western officials are looking for ways to lock in pledges of support and limit future governments’ abilities to backtrack, amid fears in European capitals that Donald Trump, if he recaptures the White House, would seek to scale back aid."

Trump, who escalated US involvement in Ukraine during his term by taking the step to provide Javelin missiles, has said he would end the Ukraine war within "24 hours" if elected in 2024. The former president is the current frontrunner for the Republican nomination.

…

A US official told the Journal that one proposal being considered for Ukraine would be a memorandum of understanding (MOU), which would not require congressional approval. President Biden has previously floated the idea of an "Israel model" for Ukraine.

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The US provides Israel with $3.8 billion in military aid each year under a 10-year MOU but does not provide mutual defense guarantees. The Journal report said that French officials have suggested military aid commitments for Ukraine should be over a four-year period.

But the ground around the world keeps shifting, even as the Neocons feverishly scheme.