[Peace-discuss] Re: USAF attack in Somalia (C. G. Estabrook)

Tue Jan 9 17:21:19 CST 2007

Good analysis on Somalia, Carl. I don't understand the opening, though:

>It's important to recognize that in the mind of the administration
>Sudan-Somalia -- indeed all of northern Africa -- is one theater of an
>American war that's been going on for more than fifteen years (in some
>senses, for more than fifty).

I'm not sure I see the connection to Sudan, even as I stretch credulity to 
the limits of reason. Following 9/11, Sudan became very appeasing to the 
admin. In fact, one of the security heads viewed as widely responsible for 
the atrocities in Sudan was a guest in the US as he consulted with US 
intelligence agencies. I suspect he will be indicted in the next month by 
the ICC.

Unlike Somalia, Sudan actually *has* a government. The failure of the 
administration to pressure that govnt to end the slaughter of its own 
citizens is an indication of a misalignment of priorities by the 
administration given its deference to the disgusting regime in Khartoum. I 
do not see any connection to the US attack in Somalia, and it seems a bit 
disingenuous to casually refer to a "Somalia-Sudan" theater.

The opposite of violence is not inaction.

I hope we recognize the difference between an attack on "extremists" in 
Somalia that undoubtedly killed scores of civilians, and the half-hearted 
winking policy of the administration as it relates to the murder and 
displacement of millions of people. One is a crime of action. The other is a 
crime of inaction that history will judge as a dark stain on the 
already-bloody tapistry of human history.

se

>From: peace-discuss-request at lists.chambana.net
>Reply-To: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>To: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>Subject: Peace-discuss Digest, Vol 36, Issue 18
>Date: Tue,  9 Jan 2007 09:23:03 -0600 (CST)
>
>Send Peace-discuss mailing list submissions to
>	peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>
>To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
>	http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss
>or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
>	peace-discuss-request at lists.chambana.net
>
>You can reach the person managing the list at
>	peace-discuss-owner at lists.chambana.net
>
>When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
>than "Re: Contents of Peace-discuss digest..."
>
>
>Today's Topics:
>
>    1. USAF attack in Somalia (C. G. Estabrook)
>    2. News notes on the web (C. G. Estabrook)
>    3. Re: Perfidy visible at a distance (Chas. 'Mark' Bee)
>    4. Re: USAF attack in Somalia (David Green)
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Message: 1
>Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2007 22:46:42 -0600
>From: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at uiuc.edu>
>Subject: [Peace-discuss] USAF attack in Somalia
>To: Peace Discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
>Message-ID: <45A31E32.9080008 at uiuc.edu>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
>It's important to recognize that in the mind of the administration
>Sudan-Somalia -- indeed all of northern Africa -- is one theater of an
>American war that's been going on for more than fifteen years (in some
>senses, for more than fifty).  We might call at least the last decade
>and a half by a sort of synecdoche "America's Gulf War(s)," because the
>energy resources of the Persian Gulf are the cynosure of US policy.
>
>  From Foggy Bottom (the home of the US Department of State), the Middle
>East looks like a vast target, concentric circles with a bull's-eye in
>the Gulf and a radius of 2500 miles, from central Asia to central
>Africa, from Belgrade to Diego Garcia.  Whatever happens within that
>circle is interpreted by the US in terms of its insistence on
>controlling world energy as the way to control its economic rivals, the
>   economies of the EU and northeast Asia.
>
>Previous administrations have been active in this theater.
>Contemporaneously with his attack on Iraq (1991), Bush Sr. staged a
>"humanitarian" invasion of Somalia, which the CIA estimated produced
>thousands of Somali casualties.  Clinton's attack on Sudan also may well
>have resulted in the deaths of thousands.
>
>It's an indication of the continuity of US policy, regardless of the
>change of administrations, that, even if the Johns Hopkins study is
>right and Bush Jr.'s war in Iraq has killed more than 650,000 people,
>Clinton is still responsible for killing even more Iraqis, by means of
>his administration's murderous sanctions.  And of course Clinton's
>attack on Kosovo can be seen as a different theater of the same war.
>
>This weekend, as a direct and specific result of this grand strategy, a
>US Air Force gunship carried out an attack in Somalia, with which we are
>not at war but which the US Navy has been blockading for weeks. (See
>attached article.) The US not surprisingly claimed that it was an attack
>on "al Qaeda," its all-purpose description of independent nationalists
>such as those of Somalia's Islamic Courts Union. (A generation ago the
>term would have been "communists.")
>
>The CBS/AP report says, "The AC-130 gunship is capable of firing
>thousands of rounds per second, and sources say a lot of bodies were
>seen on the ground after the strike, but there is as yet, no
>confirmation of the identities."  And of course it may not be the only
>US air strike.
>
>The gunship came from the US base in Djibouti -- the only US military
>base in sub-Saharan Africa -- and flew the length of Somalia to attack
>the remnants of the ICU forces that had been overthrown by an invasion
>from Ethiopia, encouraged and paid for by the US.  The popular ICU had
>previously suppressed the CIA-backed warlords who had kept Somalia in
>anarchy since the US withdrawal in 1993.
>
>"Once they started moving," reports CBS/AP, the ICU forces "became
>easier to track, and the U.S. military started preparing for an air
>strike, using unmanned aerial drones to keep them under surveillance and
>moving the aircraft carrier Eisenhower out of the Persian Gulf toward
>Somalia. But when the order was given, the mission was assigned to the
>AC-130 gunship operated by the U.S. Special Operations command" -- the
>darling of SOD Rumsfeld's desire for independent (and of course
>unconstitutional) killing.
>
>The AP reports that "the Islamic movement's main force is bottled up at
>Ras Kamboni, the southernmost tip of the country, cut off from escape at
>sea by patrolling U.S. warships and across the Kenyan border by the
>Kenyan military."
>
>The US of course has no warrant under either US or international law to
>kill people in Somalia.  It is in fact another war crime to be added to
>the administration's lengthening list.  I'm sure however that if pressed
>Bush et al. would point to the ever-elastic "Authorization for the Use
>of Military Force" against those who "planned, authorized, committed, or
>aided" the 9/11 attacks, passed by the Congress in the immediate
>aftermath of those attacks.  (That's why the people killed by US
>imperialism must always be "al-Qaeda.") And of course the administration
>will continue to kill people with that excuse until stopped, by
>resistance from their victims and from the US populace.
>
>In Somalia, there's still a good bit of the former, according to CBS/AP.
>"Many in predominantly Muslim Somalia resent the presence of troops from
>neighboring Ethiopia, which has a large Christian population. The
>countries fought two brutal wars, the last in 1977.  On Sunday, gunmen
>attacked Ethiopian troops, witnesses said, sparking a firefight in the
>second straight day of violence in the capital, Mogadishu."
>
>For an interesting analysis of the military situation, not favorable to
>the US in spite of its apparent victory in this semi-proxy war, see
>"Somalia: A State Restored? Not So Fast," by William S. Lind
><http://antiwar.com/lind/>.
>
>--CGE
>
>
>

_________________________________________________________________
Find sales, coupons, and free shipping, all in one place!  MSN Shopping 
Sales & Deals 
http://shopping.msn.com/content/shp/?ctid=198,ptnrid=176,ptnrdata=200639