Chamblee54

A certain blogger wrote a piece about Somalia. She quoted a story in occasional links & commentary . That story was a rehash of a British newspaper article, Somalia was a sideshow in the war on terror – and is paying a colossal price. To hear this blogger, some want to blame America for everything that goes right, or wrong, in the world. The truth is we are not that bad, or baaad.
According to the Guardian, after 911 America went crazy. Anywhere we saw a chance to fight terrorism, we jumped in. Some of the natives saw an opportunity, snitched out their rivals, and got America to help them . The word got out that Al Queda was active in Somalia, and a secret war broke out.
“From the start Somalia was sucked into the war on terror, a hapless bit-part player in a much bigger global drama. The presence of a small number of people with links to al-Qaida was sufficient to provoke US anxieties that the country could become a haven for al-Qaida members fleeing Afghanistan. Soon after 9/11, the US froze the assets of Somalia’s biggest remittance agency and a pillar of the economy, al-Barakat, and many lost money. Another US counterterrorism measure criminalised organisations whose support could end up in the hands of those with terrorist links. This has made any negotiations with al-Shabaab over aid to the regions they control very difficult for aid agencies.”
“The roots of al-Shabaab’s rise lie in that fatal US miscalculation (backed by the EU) to support with air strikes Ethiopia’s occupation of Somalia and remove the relatively moderate Islamic Courts Union, despite it being the only force to have achieved any degree of stability in the country in the past 20 years. Deep historic enmity between Ethiopia and Somalia provided al-Shabaab with the chance to exploit widespread nationalist anger to gain power.”
A key phrase here is “backed by the EU”. When the British journalist discusses this mess, it is Western relief efforts. When the certain blogger is typing, it is the United States. The certain blogger is not the only person making this mistake.
A comparison is made in these stories to the rise of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. The writers here look like they were too young to hear the reports from Cambodia as they happened. PG was old enough to hear the reports, which unfortunately were rather sketchy… just like the justification for the Wars in Indochina. The Government lips never stopped moving.
What happened was that the War in Vietnam spread to Cambodia. The North Vietnamese would cross the border, into Cambodia, to get away from the American troops. Bombing raids were made in Cambodia, and later a land troop “incursion”. Where Cambodia had been a peaceful monarchy, the Communists took advantage of the war chaos to take over. While Cambodia was probably not “nice barbarians living among flowers in the state of eternal innocence”, there is little doubt they would be much better off if the Vietnam War had not been fought next door.
What is happening in Somalia is a tragedy. With the distrust of the West, it will be difficult to help feed the starving people. While there might be a famine without the “global war on terror”, the American killing machine does not help make things better. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress .