By Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld
Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace
U.S. AFRICOM Public Affairs  Print     Share  

ARLINGTON, Virginia, 

Sep 22, 2006 — Q (Off mike) -- Corps of Engineers. I'd like to get your thoughts on the potential for standing up a separate combatant command for the continent of Africa, recognizing the changing threats in a post-Cold War era.

SEC. RUMSFELD: Pete and I are for it and we've been pushing and pushing for six months and trying to get the system to come up with the details as to exactly how it would be done, whether it would be a -- what do you call it?

GEN. PACE: Sub-unified command, sir.

SEC. RUMSFELD: Sub-unified command like Korea is -- kind of a command, but sort of under PACOM -- or whether it would be simply free standing. And I don't know, where are we?

GEN. PACE: Sir, General Jones and his folks are working that. It should be in to you within the next couple of weeks with their recommendation.

And exactly what the secretary just said is happening. Looking at the various options -- you can have a unified command, which means a separate headquarters, and all that entails in getting that stood up right away. You could have a sub-unified command, which is plugged into part of the European Command, working with some dual-hatted individuals in that command, or you could just leave it the way it is with European Command running it.

Clearly, with what our enemies have said -- and they've said it very clearly -- you know, Hitler published "Mein Kampf" and al Qaeda has published what they want to do. They want to reestablish a caliphate from Spain, all of Europe, Africa, across Asia, Indonesia. They've said that very plainly. That challenge is there. We need to arrange ourselves in a way to address that challenge, and Africa Command, in my opinion, is a right way to confront part of that problem.

And the question then becomes: Is the most efficient way to do a one-step process -- meaning go directly to unified command -- or a two-step process, sub-unified and unified?

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