The costly and strategically dubious relocation of U.S. Africa Command headquarters from Germany will not happen if President Trump loses the election in November, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith said Wednesday.
“Trump’s gonna lose, and we’re not gonna move AFRICOM out of Germany,” Smith said in a virtual conversation hosted by the American Security Project.
The Washington Democrat said Trump’s call to reduce by 12,000 U.S. troops in Germany and force the command to relocate is without a strategic basis.
“It’s a remarkably boneheaded idea, and we will kill it one way or the other,” he said. “It’s gonna stay in Germany, where it’s at, because it just doesn’t make sense to do that.”
Smith, who has a deep understanding of U.S. security challenges in Africa, said he sympathized with Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s challenge to reorient the Pentagon budget to face great power competition with China and Russia, but not needlessly spend billions of dollars for an unnecessary move.
“We have a limited number of assets. We cannot simply dominate every corner of the world with our presence, so we’ve got to make choices,” he said. “Great power competition is absolutely happening … in Africa.”
AFRICOM is the first of the Pentagon’s geographic combatant commands that was due to submit a “blank slate review” in September. The Pentagon has yet to make public its findings or announce possible program cuts.
The ground-up budget review is causing jitters among Africa watchers, who are eyeing Islamic State and al Qaeda affiliate group gains in the Sahel region and a continued al Shabab presence in the Horn of Africa.
Smith said getting around those challenges will mean building partnerships with European and African nations.
‘Looking at options’
U.S. Air Force Col. Christopher Karns told the Washington Examiner Thursday that the partnerships fostered at AFRICOM headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, are valuable to U.S. and partner security interests.
“Africa is important to the respective national interests, security, and future economic opportunities for the U.S., Africa, and Europe, to include Germany,” he said.
Nonetheless, Karns said AFRICOM is moving forward with planning for a new location (to be determined).
“The command is looking at options elsewhere in Europe but is also considering options in the United States and Africa,” he said. “Planning takes months, and any decision will likely take years to execute. It is premature to discuss additional details at this time.”
Esper sought last week to strengthen counterterrorism partnerships and counter Chinese influence in Africa with a swing through North Africa, visiting Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria.
Smith said finding the right partnerships will continue to be a challenge in some parts of Africa.
“As things got more problematic in the Sahel, the first thought that occurred to me was, ‘We need partners,’” he said, reflecting on governance problems, including a recent coup in Mali. “It has not gone well.”
