I'm speaking of Biblically faithful Christians, not the
Sacralized rulers who are the children of Colonialist Christendom and various
forms of Protestant and Roman Catholic Dominionist theology.
The United States backed Ethiopia which was de facto against Somalia until Selassie was overthrown in 1974. Then the United States later backed Somalia against Derg and Mengistu ruled Ethiopia. This continued until the end of the Cold War in 1989. Then the authoritarian Barre government of Somalia fell and the country as ever since been in a state of Civil War.
The United States has heavily meddled in the region, as did
the USSR, Britain and of course Italy. We should also mention France in nearby
Djibouti or French Somaliland as it used to be known. The US is also heavily
invested in Djibouti where it headquarters the new Africa Command. This is the
base of operations for the ongoing wars in Somalia and Yemen.
Kenya and Ethiopia have become regional proxies for the
United States and are facing a severe backlash. The peasant warriors of Somalia
do not have a way to strike back at the United States. So instead they hit at
their proxies.
I will not for a moment condone the murderous Al-Shabaab,
but at the same time it must all be taken in its context. Their cross-border
strikes and massacres are part of the ongoing story in the whole region... a
history that dates back to the Cold War and World War II.
If two perceived 'Christian' countries ally with a perceived
'Christian' empire and the victim of this, namely Somalia has suffered
literally decades of manipulation and death as a result... we shouldn't be
surprised that fanaticism is the result.
The Kenyan people have been betrayed by their leaders and I
wonder how many Kenyan Christians have been sucked up into the whole mindset
and the madness?
They are suffering a sort of asymmetrical persecution. Islam
as a Sacral religion cannot divorce political power (violence) from religion.
Since the state is acting, they take it as a Christian State warring against
Islam. The extreme Jihadist factions believe murdering infidels is not only a
legitimate act of war, but an act of piety and so they act thus.
Of course in the United States it is wrongly believed that
just because a man wears an insignia and pushes a button from thousands of feet
in the air... or from a control room in Djibouti that somehow is 'not' murder.
Sacralism is the oldest idolatry there is, but Christian
Sacralism destroys body, soul and plants the banner of Satan in the midst of
the Church.
At this point the region has been shattered. There is no
good way to fix it, but disengagement is a good way to start. Only
non-politically motivated actors have a chance at mediating.
