WITH LIBYA FIGHT, U.S. AFRICA COMMAND THRUST INTO A LEADERSHIP ROLE

By ERIC SCHMITT

Published: March 21, 2011

New York Times

WASHINGTON — When the United States Africa Command was created four years ago, it was the military’s first “smart power” command. It has no assigned troops, no headquarters in Africa itself, and one of its two top deputies is a seasoned American diplomat.

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Indeed, the command, known as AFRICOM, is designed largely to train and assist the armed forces of 53 African nations and to work with the State Department and other American agencies to strengthen social, political and economic programs in the region including improving HIV awareness in African militaries and removing land mines.

Now the young, untested command and its new boss, Gen. Carter F. Ham, find themselves at their headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, setting aside public diplomacy talks and other civilian-military duties to lead the initial phase of a complex, multinational shooting war with Libya.

“Are they up to the task? So far, I’d say yes,” said Kenneth J. Menkhaus, an Africa specialist at Davidson College in North Carolina. “Down the road, though, if it gets messier, it’ll test the capacity of Africom. This is certainly a baptism by fire.”

The command has faced difficulties in its first few years. Initial statements about its mission and scope of activity alarmed some African leaders and State Department officials, who feared the Pentagon was trying to militarize diplomacy and development on the continent. These concerns forced the command to set up its headquarters in Germany.

Congressional critics have warned that the command is understaffed and poorly resourced for challenges that include countering Al Qaeda fighters in North Africa, Islamic extremists in Somalia, drug traffickers in West Africa, and armed rebels in Congo. Other congressional officials cast doubt on the command’s ability to gauge progress in its programs.

“AFRICOM is generally not measuring long-term effects of activities,” concluded a report issued last July by the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress. “Without assessing activities, AFRICOM lacks information to evaluate their effectiveness, make informed future planning decisions, and allocate resources.

Military officials say General Ham’s arrival three weeks ago to replace Gen. William E. Ward, who retired, will inject new dynamism into the command and its 1,500-member headquarters staff. More than 1,000 other troops are conducting training, security assistance or other temporary duties in Africa at any given time.

General Ham, 59, a native of Cleveland, is one of the Army’s stars, having risen from private to four-star commander in a 38-year career. He has commanded troops in northern Iraq, overseen military operations at the Pentagon’s Joint Staff, and help lead reviews into the fatal shootings at Fort Hood, Tex., and the Defense Department’s “don’t ask, don’t tell policy.”

The son of a Navy PT boat officer in World War II, General Ham enlisted in the Army in 1973 as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division. After earning his officer commission, he served as an adviser to a Saudi Arabian National Guard brigade, commanded the Army’s storied First Infantry Division, and, until his current assignment, led all Army forces in Europe, when he worked closely with many of the same European allies now engaged in the Libya operation.

“He’s inclusive and a great team builder,” said Lt. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, who earlier this month succeeded General Ham in the Army’s European command. “He’s not only a great soldier who studies his profession, he’s the kind of normal guy you can drink a beer with.”

Perhaps General Ham’s most wrenching tour was commanding American forces in northern Iraq as the insurgency was strengthening there. On Dec. 21, 2004, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a dining hall at a military base in Mosul, killing 22 people, including 18 Americans. General Ham arrived on the scene shortly after the explosion.

When he returned to Fort Lewis, Wash., a few months later, he sought help for post-traumatic stress, received counseling from a chaplain and later publicly discussed his treatment. “You need somebody to assure you that it’s not abnormal,” General Ham told USA Today. “It’s not abnormal to have difficulty sleeping. It’s not abnormal to be jumpy at loud sounds.”

General Ham’s willingness to speak openly about his personal combat stress sent shock waves through a service in which seeking help has often been seen as a sign of weakness.

That plain-spoken attitude has earned plaudits from top Defense Department officials.

“During our ‘don’t-ask, don’t tell’ review, he was our conscience and our center of gravity,” said Jeh C. Johnson, the Pentagon’s general counsel and co-author with General Ham of the department’s report on the effects of allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the military. “I always made sure never to get out ahead of him.”

For the time being, General Ham will oversee the American side of the Libya operations, briefing President Obama and his top security aides from Stuttgart, as he did on Sunday, and providing broad guidance and direction to the mission’s tactical commander, Adm. Samuel J. Locklear 3rd, who is in the Mediterranean aboard a command ship, the Mount Whitney.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said on Sunday that the United States would turn control of the Libya military operation over to a coalition _ probably headed either by the French and British or by NATO _ "in a matter of days." But the American military would continue to fly missions.

General Ham, in an email message on Sunday, said plans for the change in command are already underway. “It’s fairly complex to do that while simultaneously conducting operations,” he said. “But we’ll figure it out.”