The Context for America's War on Somalia: Drawdown or Reset?

https://www.mintpressnews.com/americas-half-century-war-somalia-comes-end-sort/274956/

I was pleased to see a connection made with the Cold War and the fact that the US has been involved in the Horn of Africa since that time. Overall the article is excellent, a concise and yet probing and even poignant summary of events, and most importantly it provides the larger context that helps to explain the US role in the region and the cynicism the people of the Somalia and the larger Horn must feel toward Washington.

Few seem to remember that the US has switched sides in the region more than once. Once allied with Ethiopia and opposed to Somalia, when Haile Selassie was overthrown in 1974, the American equation reversed, only to reverse again in the aftermath of the Cold War. From the mid-1970's to the late 1980's, Somalia was a US ally (and Ethiopia an enemy) but prior to that period and certainly after it – the eye of Empire has been focused on Somalia's destruction. During the Bush years, Washington sponsored an Ethiopian invasion of the country – backed by Kenya and other US operatives in the region.

Today, the US has a proxy in Mogadishu, one that it had previously ousted but then reconsidered and reinstalled. Today, the national government is run by Western connected proxies – a former US citizen and an oil company executive. And yet it's a government that doesn't control the country.

The policy is literally that schizophrenic and complicated. It's little wonder the public has simply glazed over and no longer pays attention. The one exception is the Black Hawk Down incident which thanks to Hollywood serves as a means of rallying around the US military and the demonisation of anyone who opposes it. In the end that's all that really matters. There are some dark people in another country that don't like America – no one ever questions why – and therefore when the US drops bombs on them, it's just and right. Such films are little more than propaganda.

Trump's proposed withdrawal from Somalia set off alarms in the Washington Establishment. The official concern is with regard to al-Shabaab and piracy, though the real reason is with regard to the geopolitical control of the Horn and 'Great Power' rivals such as China. Beijing is the spectre that haunts US policy in the region. China could potentially gain control of the Horn – a crucial shipping choke point, and it would then have a 'beachhead' to affect the politics of not just the Horn but the Upper Nile and the Great Lakes region.

As in the case with Afghanistan, bureaucratic resistance from with Congress and the Pentagon has led to a foiling of Trump's plans for withdrawal and now that Biden has been installed, these policies will be quietly reversed. In some cases the military and White House leadership will use the shake-up as an opportunity to re-tool things a bit but the policy is not going to change.

Anti-war advocates were thrilled with Trump's moves with regard to these wars though I think most would admit it was hardly because Trump was some kind of peace-nik. Far from it. The truth is much simpler. The man is an idiot who doesn't understand how the world works and how US power is wielded. He didn't like the idea that the US was spending all this money on never-ending and unwinnable wars and (from his standpoint) receiving no economic gain from it. Again, such thinking (which is also popular among his base) just demonstrates that such people are quick to 'spout off' even when they don't know what they're talking about. Off the record, an Establishment figure would explain these wars are on the cheap – bargains, given all that they gain for US interests in the respective regions.

The ugly part is that people are dying – as they do in all wars. For the promoters of such wars, the costs are worth it. A handful of Western soldiers and thousands of brown people are an acceptable price to pay. That's the calculus no one wants to talk about. True liberals (or even moral people for that matter) find this abhorrent and call it what it is – a murderous and avaricious policy.

Trump is neither liberal nor moral. He doesn't care about the lives of US soldiers and he certainly doesn't care about the lives of people in 's---hole' countries as he so eloquently put it. His motives are base and ill-informed. One might have wished that he succeeded – a kind of useful idiot wrecking the garden party. Nevertheless without a genuine shift in terms of policy, doctrine, orientation, and trajectory – nothing is going to change.

The answer for Christians is actually pretty simple. There will be wars and rumours of wars. That's not going to change. Our calling is to divorce ourselves from that system and make sure we're not associated with it. Christians should have nothing to do with the empire and its wars and as much as possible we should divorce ourselves from its economy and social order built on usury, theft, and violence – admittedly a very difficult thing to do. Once you have your eyes open, you come to realise how deeply invested our society is in the empire and its warfare state and how difficult it is to get away from it. It's almost impossible.

America's hands are dripping with blood in the Horn of Africa. There is no morality to any of the policies. It's a chess game and the people are pawns – throw away pieces on the game board. It's been that way for decades. Sadly, what little coverage the region receives is tainted and the American Church and its missions complex have done little to help the people in the pews understand the situation. All too often they simply echo the State Department line or the Wall Street system their 'ministries' are invested in.