Africans denounce U.S. attacks on Somalia
By
Deirdre Griswold
Published Jan 21, 2007 7:39 PM
What possible excuse can the U.S. imperialist government and the corporate
media give for sending the most modern and destructive war fleet to the coast
of Somalia, an impoverished country in Africa of about 10 million people, and
then viciously bombing its villages with planes that fire thousands of rounds a
minute?
Jan. 13--Somalis in Helsinki, Finland, protest
the U.S. bombing attacks on their country.
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From President George W. Bush’s lips to the print and electronic media,
the rationale given is that the Islamic Courts Union, which had come to power
with popular support in most of the country, was harboring
“terrorists” from Al-Qaeda—where have we heard that
before?—and so the Pentagon was justified in taking a sledgehammer to the
country.
The subtext to this story is also becoming familiar. The U.S. is supposedly
coming to the aid of “Black Africans” who are Christians—in
this case the present government of Ethiopia—against “Arabs”
who are Muslims. This blatant attempt to pit the peoples of Africa against each
other along ethnic and religious lines is also the strategy of those who covet
Sudan’s oil and have pressed for Western intervention in Darfur.
But many Africans are not buying it. Articles have appeared in papers and
online sites across the continent not only protesting the air strikes in
Somalia but also criticizing governments that do Washington’s
bidding.
Here are a couple of examples culled from English-speaking sources.
Issa Shivji from Tanzania writes in the publication Fahamu that “an
American Air Force AC-130 jet ... bombed a site in Somalia near the Kenyan
border. The excuse was the usual one—to destroy alleged Al-Qaeda agents
who, the Americans have constantly propagandized, are part of the Union of
Islamic Courts. The planes flew from an American air base in another African
country, Djibouti.
“This is a very, very ominous turn of events. Africans have constantly
warned of the American military design on the Eastern seaboard. Yet, our
‘leaders’ have thoughtlessly been currying favor with this vicious
military power. In the horn, the heavily militarized Ethiopia has become their
‘on the scene agent,’ doing the dirty work of the American
warmonger.”
Tajudeen Abdul-Rahem writes in the East African Standard of Nairobi that
“flattery and endorsement by the West” give some African leaders
“the illusion that they are players at the global stage and they line up
behind the West’s geo-political and economic interests, including
fighting wars for President George W. Bush. [Ethopian President Meles] Zenawi
is using Bush’s doctrine to affirm his alliance and justify his narrow
national and sub-regional security concerns. But as intelligent as he is, why
can he not learn from his Washington friends in Afghanistan or Iraq? It is
easier to occupy a country than govern it. Why does Zenawi think that Somalia
will forever remain weak militarily? If a country with nearly 100 percent
Muslims wants to be governed Islamically, what is undemocratic about
that?”
There is also opposition from African-American media in the United States. For
example, Glen Ford, executive editor of Black Agenda Radio, said in a
commentary that “The United States has brought its Global War Against
Terror to Somalia. ... That nightmare future reached the capital of Somalia
this past week, as the U.S.-backed Ethiopian army escorted the puny forces of
the foreign-organized so-called Somali transitional government into Mogadishu
and other major cities. For the previous six months, the capital had known its
longest period of relative peace in 17 years, after Islamic forces drove out
the warlords—criminal gangs, really, based on cash and family
connections. But Islam is a red flag to Washington, even when it promises to
bring peace to a 99 percent Muslim country. The Americans find that kind of
peace, unacceptable.
“Ethiopian rule is unacceptable to the vast majority of Somalis. American
troops serve as advisors at all levels of Ethiopia’s army. The Americans
are also embedded in the armed forces of Kenya, to Somalia’s south, and
Washington maintains a huge base in Djibouti, the French enclave on
Somalia’s northern border. The Americans had Somalia surrounded, and late
last month assured their Ethiopian clients that it was time to move in, and put
in place a government favorable to Washington. ...
“It is a war, and a world view, that bears no relationship to
reality—which is why the entire American planetary criminal project is
bound to collapse.”
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