[Marxism] US Seeks to Turn Somalia into Global Free-Fire Zone

[Dbachmozart@xxxxxxx]

Atrocity  Unlimited


By Chris Floyd  
December 11,  2008 "_Uruknet_ 
(http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m49502&hd=&size=1&l=e) " - -- Not  content with 
destroying the only vestige of stability that 
Somalia had known for  almost two decades by arming, backing and participating 
in a 
brutal "regime  change" invasion by Ethiopia, the Bush Administration now 
wants to turn the  ravaged land into an international "free fire zone," _a 
giant 
Fallujah _ 
(http://empireburlesquenow.blogspot.com/2005/03/ring-of-fire-fallujah-inferno.html)
 where any  powerful nation on earth can launch armed 
incursions on Somali soil, wreaking  the usual "collateral damage" in the 
search for 
pirates -- or for those  arbitrarily designated as pirates.

The Bush Regime is drafting a UN  Security Council resolution that will give 
"the international community" carte  blanche to "hunt down" alleged pirates on 
land in Somalia, _the Guardian reports_ 
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/11/piracy-somalia) : 
A draft resolution that would  permit states fighting piracy to "take all 
necessary measures ashore in  Somalia, including in its airspace" has been 
circulated to members of the UN  Security Council. Prior consent for raids 
would be 
required from Somalia's  weak and fractured government...


_As we noted here recently_ 
(http://www.uruknet.de/component/content/article/3/1656-the-13th-circle-somalias-hell-and-the-triumph-of-militarism.html)
 ,  
the "Somali government" is a rapidly collapsing coalition of CIA-paid warlords  
and Ethiopian collaborators which "controls" only a few city blocks of 
territory  in the entire country. It is unfathomable that this near-fictitious 
entity 
would  or could oppose a "request" by a world power to send armed forces into 
Somalia  in a noble quest to clamp down on pirates. And what happens when 
these invading  forces inevitably clash with the various other armed groups now 
waging a  multi-sided, hydra-headed war in the country? Why, the invaders will 
have to  take stern "force protection" measures, of course.

The story goes on to  note that the locations of the "pirate lairs are 
well-known": 
Along Somalia's north-eastern  coast, villages and towns such as Eyl, 
Haradheere and Hobyo provide sanctuary  and logistical support for pirate gangs 
holding at least 14  ships.
And it is certainly not surprising  that the Western backers of the Somali 
"government" know just where the pirates  are: they provided mighty assistance 
in their rise, as _we noted here a few weeks ago_ 
(http://www.uruknet.de/component/content/article/3/1607-pirates-of-the-horn-us-backs-reign-of-crime-and-deat
h-in-somalia.html) : 
For one thing, [the  Times] notes something that is almost never mentioned in 
any story about  Somalia, neither in the very rare stories about the conflict 
itself or the  rather more numerous stories about piracy and its effects on 
commercial  shipping (an issue far more important that the lives of 10,000 
innocent human  beings, of course): the fact that the main backers and 
bankrollers 
of the  pirate gangs "are linked to the Western-backed  government."

The conservative UK  paper then goes on to give an accurate account of how 
these pirate-backing  factions came to power -- facts that are almost 
universally ignored by the  "liberal" American media . (Not to mention the 
"progressive 
blogosphere;"  indeed, you can actually find more references to the Somalia 
war in the  corporate press than among our internet "dissidents.") :  
Years of violence, neglect  and misguided policies have left Somalia one of 
the most dangerous countries  and a breeding ground for the pirates attacking 
one of the worldâs busiest  shipping routes.

Today the  northeast area of the country, including Puntland, has been carved 
up by  warlords who finance themselves by drug and gun running. This is also 
the  heartland of the pirates, whose main backers are linked to the  
Western-backed government. Radical Islamists control much of the south,  
including the 
key port of Kismayo and the porous border area with Kenya, a  staunch Western 
ally.

This  has realised a Western nightmare, which was supposed to have been 
destroyed  by Ethiopiaâs American-backed invasion of Somalia two years ago in 
support  of a puppet government created by the international community. That 
alliance  spanned the spectrum from extreme radicals to moderate, devout 
Muslims. 
The  latter were in charge.

Everyone â except Pentagon planners, it seems  â knew that Somalia had 
never 
proved fertile territory for Saudi-style  radical Islam. However, 
indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas by  Ethiopia, Somaliaâs historic 
enemy, with 
huge casualties, put an end to  that. The Islamists were driven out, the 
moderates went into exile and the  hardliners took control of the south with a 
popular 
powerbase beyond their  wildest dreams.

A puppet government, installed by foreign invasion, riddled with crime  and 
corruption, alienating and radicalizing the population: here we see the  
quintessential template of the "War on Terror," replicated faithfully in Iraq,  
Afghanistan, and Somalia -- and soon, perhaps, in  Pakistan.
And now the Bush Regime -- going out in a  GÃtterdÃmmerung of blood and fury 
aimed at the world (and at the  American people) -- wants to intensify the 
chaos in Somalia, laying it bare to  more invasions, "precision strikes," death 
squad operations, renditions and  other atrocities, this time coming from not 
just from Washington and its Terror  War proxies but from all directions. This 
is the answer of the American  militarist state to any problem, such as piracy 
or terrorism: the blunderbuss  assault of massive military force by land, sea 
and air; vast destruction, social  collapse -- and immeasurable, unbounded 
human suffering.

This is the  reality of much-praised "continuity" in "national security 
affairs" that Barack  Obama's appointments have promised. This is what will be 
"continued." 
<http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21442.htm>


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