U.S. Proposes International Gang Rape of Somalia

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

For a downloadable MP3 copy of this Black Agenda Report commentary visit our archive page here.

"The Bush regime now seeks to turn Somalia into a ‘free
fire zone' in which any country in the world can shoot and bomb and kill at
will."

Having failed in deploying Ethiopia as its proxy in the war
against Somalia, the United States now attempts to rally Europe and as many
African stooges as it can muster to gang rape the Somalis into submission. Two
years ago, the Americans encouraged
Ethiopia to invade its neighbor, to overthrow a young Islamic government
that had, miraculously, restored a semblance of peace and stability to Somalia
after 15 years of chaos and rule by warlords. As could have been predicted,
Ethiopian ground forces and American bombs and missiles combined to bring about
the "worst humanitarian crisis" on the continent, forcing millions of Somalis
from their homes and into the jaws of starvation. The Americans bankrolled the
aggression, in a futile attempt to prop up a warlord-based puppet government
that by early this month was in a state of total disintegration, with 80
percent of its soldiers and police having deserted. The Ethiopians, defeated by
the Somali resistance, are eager to exit the hell they and the Americans have
created in Somalia. That leaves only a small force from Uganda and Burundi to
act as Washington's proxies on the ground in Somalia, under the guise of the
United Nations.

"The United States now attempts to rally Europe and as
many African stooges as it can muster to gang rape the Somalis into
submission."

Uganda, especially, is Washington's willing mercenary
outpost in Africa, willing to accept any dirty assignment from the Americans.
But Somalia is too big a mouthful to be bitten off by Washington's African
proxies, and the Islamists forces now represent Somali nationalism. Mogadishu,
the ruined capital, is expected to be back in Islamic Somali hands, any day
now. Desperate, in its last weeks in office, the Bush regime now seeks to turn
Somalia into a "free
fire zone" in which any country in the world can shoot and bomb and kill at
will. George Bush invites the world's military powers to form
a posse to invade Somalia by air, land and sea, on the pretext of wiping
out piracy. Yet the piracy that flows from Somalia's onetime coastal fishing
villages is mirrored in the lawlessness of foreign fishing fleets off Somalia's
shores and the industrial piracy of nations that treat Somalia's waters as
international dumping grounds for all manner of toxic wastes. The Americans
imposed an imperial catch-22 on the Somali people, robbing them of their right
to form their own government, then damning the Somalis for not accepting the
rule of foreigners and foreign-backed warlords.

The clock is ticking on George Bush's government, but
Washington's threat to Somalia will outlast Bush. Susan Rice, Bill Clinton's
former assistant secretary of state for Africa, will soon become Barack Obama's
United Nations Ambassador and de facto point person on Africa. Susan Rice is just
as warlike as Condoleezza Rice when it comes to Somalia. While Condoleezza Rice
and her bosses justify U.S. aggressions in the name of spreading "democracy,"
Susan Rice urges American military interventions in Somalia and Sudan and
elsewhere on "humanitarian"
grounds.

For Somalia, an Obama presidency represents the "same old
same old" - the same bombs, the same bullets, the same catastrophes, the same
imperialism, with a slightly different vocabulary.

For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at [email protected].

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