Africans denounce U.S. attacks on Somalia

By Deirdre Griswold, Workers World, 25 January 2007

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?

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.”