The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org. September 21, 2012 Former Afghan Commander Tapped to Lead U.S. Military in Africa --------------------------------------------------------------- The Pentagon has selected a former top Army commander who served in Afghanistan to oversee military operations in Africa. General David Rodriguez helped orchestrate the 2009 surge of troops in Afghanistan and also served two tours of duty in Iraq. Rodriguez still needs formal approval from the White House and confirmation from the Senate before replacing General Carter Ham as head of Africa Command. The Obama administration has taken a number of steps to expand the U.S. military presence in Africa and ramped up the use of covert operations by the military and intelligence agencies. .