What Gates and Bono Have In Common

In From the Cold has an interesting post up regarding the recent visit by Bono to the Pentagon, apparently where Bono had a 20 minute meeting with Secretary of Defense Gates. George Smiley (you have to love the spook nicknames) approaches the development with a healthy mix of skepticism and potential, and if it was anyone but Gates I would almost certain dismiss this as a development without a second thought, but our observation of Gates is 'he is one clever bastard' and we consider him one of the most impressive Presidential appointments in decades. Reuters has the story.

U2 lead singer and activist Bono visited the Pentagon to discuss Africa and the fight against global poverty with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, representatives of the two men said on Wednesday.

Among the topics at the 20-minute meeting on Tuesday afternoon were U.S. plans to set up a new U.S. military command for Africa, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said.

"I think this was a chance for two people who care about the problems facing the continent of Africa to talk about their shared interest in solving those problems," Morrell said of the meeting that was not publicized in advance.

A spokeswoman for DATA, the group co-founded by Bono to fight poverty and AIDS in Africa, said the singer had been in Washington to meet members of budget committees in Congress.

One could assume that this perhaps has something to do with AFRICOM, and it indeed may, but if Gates had done his homework and we are almost certain he does, he would have recognized that DATA is about AIDS, and when you are talking about AIDS one of the largest areas where AIDS related non governmental organizations have set up shop is in the nations around the Gulf of Guinea. It just so happens, the Navy is in that theater and AIDS is on the agenda. It's called the African Partnership Station, and it is unlikely Bono knows what he should about its purpose.

Consider this, the same week Gates is meeting with Bono about "issues involving poverty in Africa", the same Bono who sponsors one of the largest high profile AIDS organizations in the world (DATA), the USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43) is pulling into Sao Tome and Principe, a nation well known for AIDS issues.

We have discussed the African Partnership Station on this blog many times, but early on we specifically highlighted the desire of an international partnered, joint agency, and non-governmental organization approach, and in our example we specifically cited AIDS in in Sao Tome and Principe. At the time I discussed an observation made by a friend of mine who works in AIDS relief for an NGO in Sao Tome and Principe.

In that area there is a stigma from people regarding others with AIDS, and it leads to people with AIDS not getting treatments because they don't want others to know they have it.

He sees some of the other NGOs demonstrating the same stigma towards the API. While all the NGOs are trying to breakdown the stigma of AIDS, he sees some of the NGOs in hypocrisy because of their stigma over the US military.

The only weakness observed to date with the Global Fleet Station approach, and in particular the African Partnership Initiative is getting the NGOs to get involved. The European NGOs in particular are so skeptical of the US Military based on their perception of credibility issues that they would rather not work with the Americans for no other reason than their personal bias against the military.

If the African Partnership Initiative was able to get DATA involved in the process, and produce positive press regarding the enabling capability the US Navy can offer in their capacity, it could potentially break down the skepticism the Navy is encountering from the European NGOs and truly bridge the gap in creating a joint approach. The Navy desires to be the security enabler for the host nation, but also a logistical enabler for NGO contribution, leveraging civilian rather than military cooperation as a force enabler in connecting to African nations.

Did Gates and Bono discuss the African Partnership Initiative? Of the number of discussions about Africa where Gates and Bono could find common cause, we certainly believe it is one of the more likely topics the two could discuss and both contribute to the 20 minute discussion.