From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Thu Aug 13 2009 - 09:35:59 EDT
http://www.examiner.com/x-8131-Sunset-District-Libertarian-Examiner~y2009m8d12-US-selling-arms-to-both-sides-of-Somali-conflict
US
selling arms to both sides of Somali conflict
August 12, 9:08 PM
Despite the fact that a huge majority of Americans oppose the occupations of
Iraq and Afghanistan, these wars continue to rage on under our new emperor's
watch. It is imperative that these adventures in imperial ignorance and
arrogance end immediately, but it's the US Empire's smaller and less visible
war-making that also needs to be exposed and opposed.
The US is pretty busy in the poverty stricken African continent. Since
January, Congolese militias have been receiving US guns and money as they
raze and rape their way across the country. Now the State Department is
informing us that it has provided hearly 40 tons of arms to the Somali
government to combat the al-Shabaab insurgency, and Hillary Clinton is
promising 80 tons more.
What exactly is being accomplished by this massive transfer of arms? Well,
Somali forces bring these guns to market, sell them to traders, who then
sell them right to the insurgency at a nice little profit. With all these
middle-man markups, it might just be cheaper to sell them directly to the
insurgency.
Somalia is a country torn apart by civil war, and was further destabilized
by the US-supported Ethiopian invasion in 2006. Poor, hungry, and desperate,
Somalis have continuously turned to piracy to feed their families and avoid
the constant threat of rivaling militias.
The US response to this increase in piracy has been numbingly typical:
threats, threats, and more threats. Talks of imposing sanctions has
significant popularity in the Pentagon, and even discussions of a possible
invasion of tiny nearby Eritrea, who the US accuses of supplying the
insurgents with weapons. Eritrea denies this claim, exposing the Pentagon's
mindset that military intervention in other countries is solely the job of
the good and noble US government.
The US war planners refuse to see any possible repercussions in their
short-sighted attempts to police and run the world. The US has a terrible
habit of funding both sides of ethnic and religious conflicts, and blowback
from these interventions aimed at our shores is not a matter of if, but
when.
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