Published on Friday, December 29, 2006 by The Progressive
U.S. Should Not Support Ethiopia’s Invasion of Somalia
by Amitabh Pal The United States has been concerned about Islamist fundamentalist militias operating in Somalia. These militias contain some extremely vile elements and allegedly have ties to Al Qaeda. They have laid siege to the Ethiopian-backed interim Somali government and have not only threatened to impose Shariah law on the country but also to export their agenda. The Ethiopian government cites the Islamist threat as the reason for its operation. The United States has not only given its approval to the invasion, but has troops in Ethiopia training the country’s soldiers, and is providing intelligence to the Ethiopian armed forces.
The Bush Administration is so spooked by the specter of Islamic fundamentalism that it’s willing to overlook the dangers of the conflict sparking off a larger conflagration.
Alas, there are no good guys in this war. Ethiopian President Meles Zenawi is a nasty piece of work. He has been a darling of the United States ever since the Clinton Administration’s time, when he was hailed as being part of the “African renaissance.” The war on terror has drawn Zenawi, a Christian leader of a religiously mixed but Christian-dominated country, closer to the Bush Administration. African renaissance man or not, he has been ruthless in his exercise of power. For instance, Ethiopian security forces killed nearly fifty people in November 2005 in a crackdown on protests. They also arrested thousands, including politicians, journalists, and activists.
“Government officials and security forces in much of Ethiopia make routine use of various forms of human rights abuse to deter and punish dissent,” Human Rights Watch states. “Many independent journalists, editors, and publishers continue to endure harassment and intimidation, and criminal penalties for a range of speech-related penalties remain on the books.”
In fact, opposition groups speculate that Ethiopia’s invasion has less to do with the threat from its neighbor and is more an attempt to unite the country around the leadership of the unpopular Zenawi regime. Somalia and Ethiopia have been at loggerheads for a long time, and fought a full-fledged war in 1977. Attacking Somalia is a way for Zenawi to score cheap political points, with (hopefully for him) minimal casualties for the Ethiopian army.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1229-21.htmEthiopian Generals and Somali Warlords
The Bush Administration's Dubious Allies in the Horn of Africa
Posted on Wednesday, August 2, 2006. By Ken Silverstein. SourcesAdd Ethiopia to the list of countries cashing in on their cooperation with the Bush Administration's “war on terrorism.” Two weeks ago, with the world's attention focused on the Israel–Hezbollah war, several thousand heavily-armed Ethiopian troops tiptoed into neighboring Somalia. Their mission was to halt the advance of a radical Islamic group that already controls most of the country and to provide support for the weak transitional government based in Baidoa. It's not clear if the Ethiopian army's move into Somalia had the tacit approval of the Bush Administration, but the U.S. certainly did not ardently oppose its intervention.
The Islamic militia is mustered in the mullah-led Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which the United States characterizes as a Taliban-style movement with ties to Al Qaeda. In June the UIC drove a U.S.-supported coalition of more secular (but nasty) warlords from Mogadishu, Somalia's capital.
The warlords had marketed themselves as the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism, and had received money and assistance from the CIA. “Everybody is playing the counterterrorism card on the Bushies,” said one former intelligence officer who has followed the situation. “All you have to do is say 'counterterrorism,' like this silly alliance in Somalia, and you'll be given guns, money, and trucks. It's becoming a sick joke.”
Like the Somali warlords, Ethiopia has proved adept at the game. Following the 9/11 attacks, the country emerged as a key American ally in the Horn of Africa. The Pentagon has a large base in neighboring Djibouti and has worked closely with the Ethiopian military, conducting joint exercises and keeping a watchful eye on events in the region, especially in Somalia.
http://www.harpers.org/sb-ethiopian-generals-200608024848.htmlIn Somalia, a reckless U.S. proxy warNAIROBI: Undeterred by the horrors and setbacks in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon, the Bush administration has opened another battlefront in the Muslim world. With full U.S. backing and military training, at least 15,000 Ethiopian troops have entered Somalia in an illegal war of aggression against the Union of Islamic Courts, which controls almost the entire south of the country.
As with Iraq in 2003, the United States has cast this as a war to curtail terrorism, but its real goal is to obtain a direct foothold in a highly strategic region by establishing a client regime there. The Horn of Africa is newly oil-rich, and lies just miles from Saudi Arabia, overlooking the daily passage of large numbers of oil tankers and warships through the Red Sea. General John Abizaid, the current U.S. military chief of the Iraq war, was in Ethiopia this month, and President Hu Jintao of China visited Kenya, Sudan and Ethiopia earlier this year to pursue oil and trade agreements.
The U.S. instigation of war between Ethiopia and Somalia, two of world's poorest countries already struggling with massive humanitarian disasters, is reckless in the extreme. Unlike in the run-up to Iraq, independent experts, including from the European Union, were united in warning that this war could destabilize the whole region even if America succeeds in its goal of toppling the Islamic Courts.
An insurgency by Somalis, millions of whom live in Kenya and Ethiopia, will surely ensue, and attract thousands of new anti-U.S. militants and terrorists.
With so much of the world convulsed by crisis, little attention has been paid to this unfolding disaster in the Horn. The UN Security Council, however, did take up the issue, and in another craven act which will further cement its reputation as an anti-Muslim body, bowed to American and British pressure to authorize a regional peacekeeping force to enter Somalia to protect the transitional government, which is fighting the Islamic Courts.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/26/opinion/edlone.php 
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