1:15 P.M. EST
Ladies and gentlemen, General Wald. 
(Off mike, introductions.)
COL. MACHAMER: One short announcement before we get started. We are going to transcribe this briefing today, so when you ask your questions, if you could move the microphones around to make sure we pick you up.
Thank you.
General Wald. It's all yours.
GENERAL WALD: Well, first of all, thanks for being here. We just came back from a trip to the continent -- our third, I guess, since we've been in the job. It was good. We went to 11 countries in seven days. I think we hit all of them except Morocco this time. We were going to Morocco, and then now they've had so many visitors lately and then they had the earthquake, so instead, we sent humanitarian relief supplies instead of me, which they valued a lot better this time, but sorry about that.
And anyway, the relationship there is really good. We were in Algeria twice, both Algiers and Tamanrasset, and working with the Algerians closely, their military. We're excited about that. General Amari, the CHoD and MoD, is coming to visit us on the 22nd of March in Germany -- that's good -- with the other chiefs of defense from North Africa and the Pan Sahel area. We were in South Africa three places.
And we stopped in Lagos. We were going to Abuja but the weather was bad and we couldn't land. So we went to Lagos and had great hospitality there.
And then we also stopped in -- excuse me -- we stopped in Algeria on the way down, twice, two places; then we went to Lagos. Then we went to Luanda, Angola, which I'd never been to -- it's fascinating; then into Pretoria, East London, Cape Town, then back out through Windhoek, Namibia, back into Luanda and then up to Gabon, out to Sao Tome, up to Accra, Ghana, and to Niamey, Niger, and then to Tunis and back home on this one. It was great.
Great relations, great visits, great progress every place you go, except we didn't have any contact necessarily with the military in Luanda, although their CHoD, their chief of defense from Angola, is coming to visit us this spring. And that will be an interesting chance to get to know each other, look at potential common areas of interest for the future; look at making progress rather than going backwards; looking at the war on terrorism, which is a hugely misunderstood process because it's so different. We're not used to that type of thing in the United States, that type of conflict or activity.
But I will say that every place I go in Africa that we talk about the war on terrorism, there is a resonance and an agreement that we have something in common, immediately, no matter where it is. Frankly, it's no matter where it is in all the 93 countries we have in our command that when you talk about extremism or fundamentalism or non-state sponsored terrorism or criminal activity and the threat that poses to the democratic or any government for that matter, but democratic governments, it's universally understood and the idea of responding to that problem, every place I go everybody agrees that we need to do it together. You know, it's just a matter on how we do that and when we do it. So Africa is no different, and we're having a lot of successes there, over the last year particularly, with really, really great interest, enthusiasm, cooperation.
I think the other key word is partnershipping, where it's not a matriarchal relationship here at all; it's an equal partnership. And that's a good thing for two reasons: One is the United States can't and won't do it all ourselves. We shouldn't. It's everybody's problem. And number two is, it gives countries in the world pride to know that they have a significant input and a part to play in this problem.
So we can talk about all that. You can have questions, I guess, would probably be better because you're probably interested in something else.
QUESTION: We're hearing -- Charlie Cobb at AllAfrica.com.
GENERAL WALD: Do you know the imam in Timbuktu has a website?
QUESTION: I did not know that.
MR. MACHAMER: Yes, he does.
QUESTION: I know the people restructuring the manuscripts have a website -- that the old manuscripts --
GENERAL WALD: Oh, he's got it. He gave me his card, and that's a little bit scary when you think about the fact that most people think Timbuktu is exactly what it states: way out there in nowhere.
QUESTION: We hear, sort of in a geographic sense, three areas of concern on the part of the European Command or the Pentagon or -- and it comes from both briefings here at the Pentagon, as well as in Europe:
One is with the North African tier of the continent, where we are told that al-Qaida is making significant inroads, given the alienation that exists in many chunks of the communities, particularly in Morocco and Algeria.
Secondly -- and this has been expressed early by the Pentagon -- concern certain countries down the West Coast of Africa, part of that initial concern was how those countries were being used to finance al-Qaida and some of that was the drug trafficking out of West Africa.
And the third area of concern, where the U.S. has the largest number of troops, being the Horn of Africa.
To what -- if these are growing concerns of the Pentagon or the United States, to what extent can we expect both an increase in U.S. troops in Africa or the increase of U.S. military presence in Africa? And are you in discussion about -- and I think General Jones seemed to hint at this at one point some months ago -- are you in the process of discussing some expansion of the mission of CENTCOM?
GENERAL WALD: EUCOM?
QUESTION: Yes, EUCOM, sorry. I get my acronyms mixed up. (Laughter.)
GENERAL WALD: On the first issue, the al-Qaida in North Africa issue, I wouldn't call it significant. I don't know what the definition of significant would be in your case, but there has, without a doubt, been some al-Qaida presence in portions of North Africa. It could be on a temporary basis. It could be more than temporary. But it isn't like Afghanistan or other places, and that's more Pakistan, for that matter.
But they've shown an interest there, and we've had indications of that. And this is not meant to be, you know, hyperbole or anything else. It's just the fact of the matter they've been there. And that; therefore, is a bad signal, we think. You know, and what al-Qaida, based on some successes by the United States and our partners, has been disrupted quite a bit. They're not gone. We know that. But it's been more difficult for them to operate. And I think they've become less exclusive and more inclusive worldwide and they've become -- they're out franchising different organizations to help them, for two reasons:
One, it's the more the merrier, basically, which is kind of a poor way to put it, but they want more people involved in their organization and they're recruiting in that respect. And, you know, the jihad is universal to them.
In the case of Algeria, for example, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Contact -- Combat, I should say, has -- about four months ago released a manifesto that said they're associated with al-Qaida, for example. Now, whether al-Qaida has agreed to that or not, we don't know, but they have made the statement they want to be associated with al-Qaida.
We've had indications that knowledge that there have been al-Qaida people in places in North Africa. You mentioned West Africa. And it's kind of one of those things where, where there's smoke, there's fire. And one of the lessons we've learned is you can't wait for the problem to become large and then address it. You have to get ahead of this problem. And North Africa is no different.
Now, Algeria, for example, has been fighting an internal insurgency against terrorist group, recognized internationally as the GSPC for years. And one of the things that we've noticed, or decided in the United States, as you know, and the President's made the comment, that we'll fight terrorism as partners wherever it is in the world; and if it's a recognized terrorist group, we'll help. We feel obligated to help in North Africa. We're doing that in a partnership.
So I think al-Qaida has an interest in North Africa. They have an interest in the Sahel area, definitely. They have an interest in other parts of Africa. And so we have to get ahead of it.
On the West Africa issue, on funding, it's not just drug trafficking; it's illicit arms; it's what used to be called -- what do you call it -- the diamonds?
MR. SKELTON: Blood diamonds, conflict diamonds.
GENERAL WALD: Blood diamonds. Conflict diamonds. In Sierra Leone and in Republic of Congo, then the northwest corner of Gabon and other places, those are -- we still know in Sierra Leone that the diamonds are going out illegally, and al-Qaida has been interested in that as a funding source -- no doubt about it; so is Hezbollah, in a huge way.
So governments that don't have the ability to govern all their area or to stop illicit trafficking of arms, peoples, drugs, you name it, are a problem. And those areas in North Africa and on the West Coast of Africa that you've alluded to are areas that we need to eventually get control of.
Now, "we" is a big word. We, really, our philosophy, and I'll say it up front is, we want the Africans to help themselves. We want to help them help themselves; and it's a long road.
Now if you look at terrorism around the world, they either are living and operating and training in places that are conducive to that, Afghanistan, you know, the Taliban regime that basically there was no governance -- it was an agreement with al-Qaida that they could live in Afghanistan and train with impunity.
And as that is closed down a little bit, both Afghanistan, and eventually, Iraq will be also, they're going to have to look for other places that are conducive for them to operate in. North Africa is a huge, expanse of space that's very difficult to control militarily. So we want to help with that.
And I can't remember the third question. (Laughter.)
QUESTION: I just wondered whether there was some change underway on the part of your mission vis-à-vis Africa.
GENERAL WALD: Yeah, well, let me just talk to that. There is a change. One is, like anything, there is a -- not renewed -- but an increased, significantly increased, interest in not just EUCOM, but I'd say, the international community on the issue of the continent of Africa and the future of what that continent is going to bring: Significant resources, significant size, significant potential for haven for terrorism, if the areas aren't controlled; and a significant humanitarian issue that will affect security and stability, and basically, what we in the United States do in the continent coming up from the HIV/AIDS problem.
As far as U.S. presence goes, we're interested in having forward operating locations that we can stop in, refuel in, be assured that they're there when we need to go long distances. As you know, the continent of Africa is huge. From Stuttgart, Germany, to Cape Town is 6,500 miles. That's the same distance as from Stuttgart, Germany, to Los Angeles. That's a long way.
And so, number one is, we'd like to have access to bases that are in places that we can operate from; two is, it's in our best interest to just develop relationships and know people and understand and have a trust; three, we are doing some training with African nations. There's an initiative called the Pan Sahel Initiative, PSI, that you're probably aware of, that European Command, with our special ops folks are actually training with Mauritania, Mali, Chad, Niger, to work with their militaries to give them a better capability to respond to the terrorist threat in those areas.
We're working with Algeria as we speak. We're going to have a meeting of the chiefs of defense of the North African countries in Stuttgart on the 22nd of March -- first time ever. And we're going to discuss common items of interest: Interoperability; sharing of information where we can; working on better information flow. We are working with the South Africans on training in a huge way, with special ops training and other areas of interest.
We're working on, with the South African military, their medical group, a -- with the European Command, in conjunction with the Department of Defense, Department of State and the National Health Institute, a AIDS -- holistic approach to AIDS treatment; and that is a huge issue.
The Department of Defense is putting in over $20 million into AIDS assistance, research, remediation, eradication, with several countries in Africa -- South Africa is one of them, for example. And in that problem of AIDS, if it's not stopped, will become a strategic issue internationally. The Economist quotes -- that says within a generation, there will be 20 million orphans in Africa, in the continent.
Our interest militarily is -- everybody has a humanitarian concern, obviously. But militarily, is it's a readiness issue for the continent of Africa -- this is military. For example, in South Africa they have 75,000 people in their military, as you are probably aware. They have a significant AIDS incident -- incidence in their military. That means they can't deploy many of their people in their military; therefore, that military is not able to do some of their mission there. And we want South African militaries to do their mission. We want to help them do that, so it's a little bit different problem than we've faced in other areas, and it's multi-faceted, and there's a multi-faceted approach to it, and our job is to help them help themselves, as I said before.
QUESTION: I have three questions. So first, what is your appreciation about the contribution of Algeria in the world war against terrorism?
Second, how about the military relationship with one United States and Algeria?
And the third question, the Algerian newspapers said recently that U.S.A. will create a military base in Algeria. What about this information?
GENERAL WALD: I'll take the last one first.
I've seen the reports on my comment about building a base in Algeria. We're not building a base in Algeria. We are interested in being able to land at bases in Algeria with our aircraft, or train together, but we're not interested in building a permanent base there, and I don't think the Algerians are interested in us doing that either.
So I've seen in the Algerian papers that I was there visiting to help set up a listening site and all these things, which is a -- not correct. We aren't doing that.
Number two is, how do I think the Algerians -- the first question -- are doing on the war on terrorism? I think they're doing a fantastic job. I think they're very good at the issue of fighting the GSPC. They've, unfortunately, had a lot of practice at it. It's been a very big issue for Algeria. We respect their ability to do that. Matter of fact, I'm taking a team of general officers from European Command to Algiers this spring and we're going to have a meeting with the Algerian military and have them tell us about both insurgencies during the battle of Algiers and how they're fighting terrorism, and try to learn from them. We think we have a lot to learn from the Algerians.
Lastly, are we working with them on terrorism? Yes, heavily. We have every intention in the world to help them where we can, maybe not with a physical presence, with information sharing and discussions on fighting their war against the GSPC. And we value that. We think Algeria is a leader in the north. We'd like to see Algeria partner with South Africa on training and moving forward on this. But we definitely see a significant improvement in -- not improvement -- change, increase with our relationship with the Algerian military and government.
QUESTION: Thank you.
GENERAL WALD: You're welcome.
QUESTION: General, Deon Lamprecht from Media24 in South Africa.
What is your assessment of the state of readiness of the South African army, given the problem of AIDS you've mentioned, also the logistics, et cetera?
And specifically in regard to the peacekeeping missions that are involved in Africa already in places like the DRC and Burundi? Do we have the readiness to keep that up? And what kind of assistance can the U.S. give South Africa in four peacekeeping missions, like training, logistics, et cetera?
GENERAL WALD: I think the South Africans are affected by the HIV problem in their military, and it limits the amount of -- number of people it can deploy at one time, which is not good for any of us. We need them to be able to show leadership in the southern half of the continent, particularly, if not all the continent.
There -- the work they are doing in Burundi is good. I've been there in the AMIB mission there, and we saw it although it was in the early stages. That's a unique mission. As you know. They've got the cantonment issue and so they're doing pretty good there.
We also saw them in Entebbe on one of our trips and the mission they were doing in the MONUC, and that was impressive as well. And from what I understand, they're doing a good job in the Republic of the Congo.
But what I also understand is they've hit their limit for how many troops they can deploy right now, and that is a negative thing for the continent. So the fact that if they can treat their AIDS problem, if they can get more deployable troops, I think it will be hugely important to at least the southern half of the continent of Africa, if not all of it, because of the leadership that South Africa can bring to the equation.
As far as training goes, there's a program called ACOTA that is sponsored by the United States that trains African militaries on basically peacekeeping issues, but more importantly on international law, law of armed conflict, and the modalities of a professional military working in a arena that we're talking about.
And South Africa has recently stated that they intend to request this training, which is a -- really a good thing for all of us. We think it's a positive step. We had the South African J-3, their joint head of operations, visit us in European Command a few weeks ago. We had good discussions. I think over the last 14 months the relationship between the United States and the South African military has flourished. It's a good thing. We see significant benefit in training with them.
I would think that in a little bit of a critical way, and I think the South African military and government both kind of regret this, but in the late/mid '90s, the South African military decided to modernize with new fighters, submarines and frigates. And I think if they had to do it over today again, they'd probably do it a little different.
They'd probably buy medium-range airlift. They'd probably buy things that would provide them a little bit more ability to be mobile in the southern part of Africa. And I think they want to transform to that. We heard a briefing there last week by their air force on how their air force plans to transform by 2012. But, frankly, there isn't any there "there" there yet. I mean, so I think good recognition of the fact that they have a responsibility as leaders in Africa, that they're expected to show that leadership. I think they're in a transition right now and they're going to have to transform to be able to do some of those missions.
I think other countries in Africa are looking for the leadership from South Africa, their military as well as the government. And I think for things to go the way we hope they will, South Africa is going to have to play a significant part and be engaged, and they're going to have to transform their military to do that. They have the intention to do it. I'm not sure they're able to yet, but we're hoping. We'll help from the standpoint of intellectual capital, training and discussions and advice. QUESTION: Thank you.
QUESTION: General, how does the EUCOM intend to carry out its mission in Africa, both in the humanitarian mission and the security mission in the framework of the cooperation system with the mechanisms, the regional mechanisms that are there?
GENERAL WALD: Excellent question. We think that regional mechanisms is exactly the way to go. As you know, there was a discussion at the African Union last week or so about a continental army of one million people. And that's an issue for the African Union, but frankly, we don't think that's the way to go. We think the regional approach, as you just mentioned, is good.
The Economic Union of West African States, ECOWAS, we think is a very good example of how regional security can work in the continent. And the ECOWAS success in Liberia is a great example of Africans helping themselves, led by the Nigerian forces with nine different Economic Community of West African States, they went into Liberia and stabilized the situation when Charles Taylor was exiled to Nigeria, and now the UN has taken over. That, to us, is a model of how things can work in Africa.
We were in Gabon and talked to President Bongo last week. And his son, Ali Bongo, gave us a draft of a plan for a regional security program in the CMET countries. We think that's an excellent idea and want to help with that from the standpoint of training, advice. In the ECOWAS countries, in Ghana -- Accra, Ghana, they have the Kofi Annan Center that has been recently opened.
That was a multi-national funded mission, or building and capability. And they're training ECOWAS, mainly ECOWAS officers on peacekeeping and humanitarian missions at the operational level. In Bamako, Mali, they have a school that's training the ECOWAS folks on a tactical level; and then Abuja, Nigeria, they have a strategic level school.
To us, that is exactly what ought to happen on the African continent. In Sadek, for example, led by South Africa, the countries in South Africa, I will say this: This will probably drive the South Africans crazy, but I could see the South Africans and Angolans cooperating in the future on regional issues. I mean Angola has a significant airlift capability. We were in Luanda, as I said earlier, last week, twice. And on the ramp, they had, I would say dozens, a couple of dozen airlift aircraft that could take forces quickly to a crisis area. To me, that's exactly what needs to be done in South Africa and in that region.
In North Africa, we're trying to work an initiative with the Moroccans, Algerians, Tunisians, the Mauritanians, Chad, Niger and Mali, as well as, potentially, Senegal and other countries. And frankly, who knows? I mean Libya could be a part of this in the not too distant future now that they've come back into the Western world, though that -- but that's a little premature. But the point would be a grouping of people that can help each other monitor their area and do away with this issue you brought up, Charlie, and that's smuggling and gun running and humanitarian traffic -- human trafficking.
And frankly, that environment you described, the illegal smuggling environment, is the same environment terrorists work in, especially the criminal element. They work in that environment. They move in that environment -- smuggling routes -- you know.
So back to your point is we believe the regional security approach is good. We think there are certain countries that will demonstrate leadership in some of those regions -- take the lead. And we'd like to help with that, primarily from an advice standpoint, from a intellectual capital standpoint, from a training standpoint, from a period visit standpoint where we actually temporarily move to those countries and train with them, and through an exercise program -- even a Command Post-type exercise where we discuss how you would plan for a crisis; when the crisis arises, do the planning, help with the logistics -- get the movement there and then support it. And we think there are African countries, plenty of them, that can do this. And we plan to help.
Now, if you look at the amount of money the Western world is putting in Africa in crisis prevention compared to the amount of money we're spending on crisis remediation and response, it's unbelievable. We put a little bit in for prevention and we put a lot in for response. But we need to turn that around just a little bit, I think.
But we need to look at some non-traditional ways of doing that, and this is an international, multi-faceted problem. And there's the economic part, there's the social, there's the political and the military. And the military's just a small part of that, although right now, the military's kind of taken the lead on a lot of it, but we see a multinational approach to this.
In northwest Africa, for example, we have a initiative that we've started that's called the African Clearing House where, with the Brits, the French, we're going to include the Spanish, the Portuguese, the Dutch, the Germans and others, a coalition of the willing, if you will from the standpoint of who's doing what, where, and when? And we're going to deconflict it. We're going to coordinate it and make sure there's some focus and synergy. That's a good thing.
In Accra, Ghana, at the Kofi Annan Center, right now there are Brits, there are French, there is Dutchman down there. There are others that are already contributing to the instruction there. And we think that's exactly the way to go, so back to finish off their regional security is the way to as far as we're concerned, and we're going to promote that.
QUESTION: Can I ask you, is there a proposal to have 200-man training units train African troops? I think the AP reported this the other day. And if so --
GENERAL WALD: No, there isn’t a proposal. We're doing it.
QUESTION: You're doing it? U.S. troops?
GENERAL WALD: Well, we're -- right now today, we're training troops in Mali and Mauritania, for example. We fully intend to do the same thing in Chad and Niger.
QUESTION: As part of PSI?
GENERAL WALD: Yeah, definitely. We're there doing it. And it isn't 200-man units so much as 200 men in smaller units, and doing it with small platoon-size units. It's the, you know the old adage: Crawl, walk, run. We're in the crawl phase, we'll walk eventually, and then we're going to run.
But it's really been beneficial and a huge payback -- really a steep learning curve, a very enthusiastic response. And, quite frankly, I can't tell you right now about it, but someday it will come out. We've already had some successes in real terms on some of this training and it's already paying off.
It's kind of like Algeria, for example. Part of it is we haven't asked before. We haven't made the approach before about partnershipping; and there's a great willingness to do that, a very clear understanding that the way to fight this war on terrorism has got to be multinational coalition, sharing, partnershipping, everybody involved, and a huge amount of information sharing in a very rapid way.
So it's working already and we're -- there's a lot of -- it's going to be -- I think the success from the standpoint of this kind of non-traditional approach, I guess you'd call it, where you don't put a bunch of troops there, park them, and then that's your military presence is -- what you do is you take troops and you actually help the governments train to be better at what they do themselves.
And in this war on terrorism and this issue in Africa, one of the major significant resources is actually manpower. It isn't really that high-tech, necessarily. It's more of a manpower issue, and there are significant manpower resources in the militaries in South Africa and Africa in general, the continent.
So we're swapping to actually train in a different way and to -- and our strategy is a little different. It isn't going to be large forces in garrisons someplace.
QUESTION: Is the crisis response program going to be in every African country, although I -- how are the current program countries chosen?
GENERAL WALD: They are chosen based on, I think, a combination of willingness by the country to do it and an interest in the United States to have them trained. I think, given a perfect world, it used to be the African Crisis Response Initiative, now it's ACOTA.
QUESTION: ACOTA, yeah.
GENERAL WALD: I think it's a wonderful program, and the more that can be trained, the better.
But I think one of the things we were talking about, and it goes back to what Mr. Allen talked about, is if we can do this in a regional security way where you could have more people trained as a group, it would be better because there's economy of scales to be had. And so we think if we can start working in the way that we actually train an ECOWAS group, let's say, a CMET group or a CEDA group, or you name it, North African Pan Sahel group together, part of the problem is you can't just have a handful of people trained and then go away because they move from unit to unit, and now they've lost. So you've got to get them kind of together and get more people. But we like the idea of everybody being trained that's willing to be trained.
QUESTION: Jim Fisher-Thompson, Washington File.
General, two questions: France, what about -- we have interests in common with France on the continent. Could you comment on that, programs that we might be doing? And what's the state of our -- you know, what --
And then the second question, second question, if I may, is Tanzania. There had been some, there's some talk about the Tanzanians aren't quite, you know, in terms of terrorism, anti-terrorism, you know, going down the path that we want. Could you comment on that, too?
GENERAL WALD: On the French part, we are talking with the French about common interests in Africa per se, and there are a lot of common interests. I mean they're Francophile countries that are -- obviously have lineage and history with France. And they speak French so that helps. The French would be involved in that respect.
But number two is, I think after we talk to the French or the Brits or some of the other countries and we put it in the terms we've talked about, they understand and they agree that we need to do this as -- in partnership, that we need to multiply our forces from an economy of scale standpoint; and they're very interested in participating in Africa as a team. I'm going to go to France on the 19th and discuss how we can even do better at this.
In Tanzania, I mean, I can't speak too much for that because I haven't really been there. But I know that it's, it's a challenge. There has been a terrorist presence in Tanzania; we know that. I will say that we're working with the Tanzanian Government. We also are working with Central Command on the Horn of Africa that you mentioned, Charlie, on a daily, routine basis, sharing intelligence, working together, to make sure that there's not a seam between the Horn of Africa and Central Africa, and there's not a seam between Tanzania and the Horn of Africa.
And so we have a process for that. Let me just tell you that right now. And we do think there's a threat in Tanzania and we're working on it.
QUESTION: Will you be going there fairly soon?
GENERAL WALD: Personally, I don't have it on the immediate schedule. I'll go there sometime. We have people that are there and visit there and work with the government. I'll just put it that way.
QUESTION: Okay.
QUESTION: Malcolm Brown for the SABC.
You seem to suggest, General, that in the past few months training has -- with South African forces has ramped up considerably and the relationship seems to have shifted just in that time scale. Can you tell us any more why you say that particularly and what training you're doing?
GENERAL WALD: Actually, it's been more than the last few months. It's been over a year now. And a little over a year ago, we had a special ops mission there. It was called FLINTLOCK, training with the South Africans, and it really went well. I mean, the South Africans just thought it was marvelous training. We got a lot out of it, ourselves.
As you know, President Bush visited Africa this year. That made a large impression, from what we can see on South Africa and the other countries they visited. It seemed to open up some doors from the standpoint of South Africa actually believing that we were interested in partnershipping. It was a pretty significant visit.
And then we visited -- we have, European Command, at various levels, myself, General Jones was there, obviously, a couple weeks ago, and then some of our other general officers have visited. And the relationship is growing rapidly. And we think the South African civilian leadership sees the value of the relationship between South Africa and the United States, in this case European Command, and we've seen a -- I guess a significant increase in interest in this relationship from a military training standpoint.
Part of it has to do with getting to know people. You know, this is my second visit there. I plan to go every quarter to South Africa. And relationships cannot be overvalued, I don't think.
And so I think they actually believe we're genuine. I think they believe that, you know, we have common interests. I think they trust what we're saying. And I think they see the value in what we're talking about. And I also think they, on their own, in their own right, they've recognized the need for this change. I mean, Deon was kind of alluding to that a little bit ago that South Africans realize they're through their transition now, and the strategic importance of what they do in the southern half of Africa is apparent to them. And I think they're ready to start picking up some of that load. So they see the value of the training, their ability to do that, and I think they see the United States as a valued friend in helping them get there.
QUESTION: Can I do a South Africa follow-up?
One of your predecessors, General Fulford, who now heads up the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, chaired a seminar a couple weeks ago on AIDS in the militaries in Africa, and gave an anecdote. He didn't name the country -- although it's fairly, a number of people said they believed it was South Africa -- in which he said that the government tested a squadron, an aircraft squadron, including, I guess, the pilots or something, for AIDS, and that 85 percent of the personnel tested positive. And he said it was a country that had two of these squadrons. I don't know if it was fighter squadrons or --
And he said their reaction was to just not test the second one because it was so horrible. They were afraid that it was going to even be worse.
You alluded to the problem with the South African military forces. What is the South African military doing to turn this around, to change this?
GENERAL WALD: That's a good question. We were in -- at the South African military hospital in Pretoria last week, and their surgeon general, the leader of their military medicine, gave us a briefing about how the United States European Command and the South African military and their medical group have actually partnershipped up.
We're providing $2.2 million to this from European Command to the South African military, and they've developed a very comprehensive program to study exactly, first of all, prevention -- education, prevention, identification, treatment and follow-up that is probably the first comprehensive, holistic approach to this problem in the world.
And the point there is exactly because of what you said. And what we're getting is that the South African military has recognized the need for testing and recognition, and that there is a scientific approach to this, there's a social aspect to it, but there's a scientific approach and there's a medical approach that has to be taken. It cannot be done with, I guess, kind of -- I've got to be careful what I say here, but it's got to be done with medical treatment. It can't be done with, you know, herbal treatments or whatever else. It's a significant scientific issue.
And we've been getting feedback from other groups that they think this may be probably the first comprehensive approach, and it's done by the military, which is really good.
So do I think they've recognized it? Yeah, I do. I think they have. I think they're very concerned that they don't have enough -- their forces could be infected or affected enough that it limits their ability to deploy outside of the region. They realize that for UN missions that they're going to have to be tested before they go there anymore. And I think they realize in South Africa this is a hugely significant strategic issue to them as a country that they have to address.
And so I am encouraged that there are programs for this. You know, the President of the United States has pledged $15 billion to the anti-AIDS effort worldwide, which 13 of the countries are in Africa.
Bill Gates, I think, has donated at least a billion dollars to the anti-AIDS/anti-malaria effort in Africa on his own. The United States European Command sounds like a small number when you talk about us, with us putting in the $23 million DOD contributed to the militaries in Africa on AIDS research and prevention.
We were in East London last week at the Mercedes plant. And the reason is in Stuttgart is Germany is the headquarters for Mercedes. And what they have is a program in East London because they have about a 10 percent AIDS incidence for their workforce there that they're studying and working on how to prevent AIDS in the workforce in East London.
To us, to us in EUCOM, all of these programs need to be coordinated. And if it's a, you know, a civilian with AIDS, a military with AIDS, it's still the same thing. And there's no reason for separate, individual programs. They ought to be coordinated. And, on the one hand it's a humanitarian issue, no doubt; but, on the other hand, for us in the military, it's a strategic issue.
QUESTION: Yeah, a follow-up to that. And I'm not being invidious; I'm genuinely curious. Considering that it costs, what, a million dollars to train a pilot or something, and I understand --
GENERAL WALD: A little more than that.
QUESTION: A lot of African militaries do not mandate that before enlistment or joining that you take a test. Certainly, the UN does not mandate that of its peacekeepers before deployment.
Can you enlist in the Air Force -- can you --
GENERAL WALD: In the United States Air Force?
QUESTION: Yeah, without taking an AIDS -- a blood test?
GENERAL WALD: In the United States Air Force?
QUESTION: Yeah.
GENERAL WALD: No. The United States Air Force has 100 percent testing. The United States military tests everybody. Everybody.
QUESTION: Is this something that we would recommend for other militaries to do?
GENERAL WALD: Totally. 100 percent. It's a -- and I'll tell you, it's just exactly what you're talking about. There's a social issue here; we know that. But the fact of the matter is you invest significantly in the training of these folks. It's a national investment. And pilots is a great example. You can't afford to have a pilot get -- put just millions of dollars into training, and then find out they're incapable of doing the mission. So to us it's a practical issue.
Additionally, they're non-deployable, just like you talked about. It's a readiness issue. And eventually, and because of social reasons, you're going to have to take care of these folks, which is a huge cost. I mean, it sounds kind of crass, but it's just -- it's a pure -- there's a lot of reasons. The social reasons you can make your own argument on, no doubt about it. Humanitarian. But from the military perspective, it's readiness and there's a business case as well. And we think it would be smart for everybody to test everybody before they came in to any military.
COL. MACHAMER: We have time for one more question, please.
QUESTION: General, just on the issue of -- that you mentioned earlier about access to forward bases. Are there any new commitments you've came back that you got on this trip, as regarding to that?
And in the case of South Africa, what kind of scenarios have you been trying to address? What kind of -- do you look at, for instance, a heightened conflict in a place like Zimbabwe and how it might affect the region?
GENERAL WALD: You know, I think that would be a good example. I think a problem in Zimbabwe and thinking through that is something we should be doing, personally. But yeah, it would be both a manmade crisis, you know, a governmental crisis, or a humanitarian or nature, a natural crisis -- the floods in Zimbabwe -- or in Mozambique, for example, was an example where a lot of people could have responded rapidly to take care of it.
But -- what was the first question?
QUESTION: On access to forward bases that are being used.
GENERAL WALD: Oh, yeah. Did we get any new ones?
QUESTION: Yeah.
GENERAL WALD: No. In fact, you know, it's kind of interesting. What we're looking for -- and there are certain bases that have been identified in Africa that we have agreements with countries that we've already put some -- some investment in, mainly fuel, infrastructure, hydrants, et cetera. There are about six of those already.
But the way I look at it is a little different than some other people. I look at any place in Africa that has a runway or port that wants to be friends with the United States or we have a relationship with as a potential forward-operating location that we could temporarily use.
Where there's infrastructure that would be beneficial, that would be useful common to both the country, the host, and the United States, and, frankly, that's in the one hundreds of places -- you know, that are 5,000-plus feet long maybe or 6,000-maybe-feet-long runways that have a place to park and some fuel -- that's a forward-operating location if the country decides they want us to come and operate with them.
So I think it just makes sense, first of all, that we develop relationships and friendships; we know each other; that we find common ground; and then, we'll have a lot of forward- operating locations. And, to me, that's the best way to do it, frankly.
COL. MACHAMER: Is that it? General, thank you very much.
GENERAL WALD: Okay, well, thank you. I'll come up and see you again sometime.
