Re: [Marxism] US Has Won a Huge Victory!

["farmelantj@xxxxxxxx" <farmelantj@xxxxxxxx>]

The US role in promoting the Ethiopian invasion
of Somalia has much to do with current piracy
problems, since that invasion was intended
to prevent the formation of an Islamist
dominated central government in that
country. That invasion by precluding
the formation of such a government has
ensured the continuance of turmoil in
that country, including the current
piracy problem.

Somalia has been basically
without a working central government
since 1991, and that has been at the root
of most of that country's current problems
including piracy.

Presumably, if Somalia had a central
government, that government would have
been able to defends Somalia's rights to its
own territorial waters. It would
have been able to prevent
foreign fishing trawlers from coming
in and depleting fish stocks through
overfishing.  And they presumably
would have been able to curb the
dumping of toxic wastes by foreign
vessels which have
also damaged fish stocks. The destruction
of Somalia's domestic fishing industry
is in large degree at the root of that
country's current piracy problem.

And if Somalia had a working central
government, that government would have
had a strong incentive to curb piracy, anyway.

While one might not wish to claim that
US imperialism is the cause of all
the world's problems, it clearly is
at the root of many of Somalia's current
problems, with some resulting blowback.

Jim F.
---------- Original Message ----------
From: Eli Stephens <elishastephens@xxxxxxxxxxx>
 .
 .

There is, of course, one flaw in this "the Somalis are just protecting their 
own waters" story. This latest attack (and no doubt others) occured 300 miles 
off the coast, which is nobody's idea of Somali waters. It seems clear that 
"piracy" started with Somali fishermen defending their own waters and the 
illegal fishing (and later, dumping) that was occuring now, but it also seems 
clear that most of what is going on today has little or no relation to that. 
After all, the Somalis are not seizing empty fishing boats on their way to 
stealing Somali fish. They're seizing full cargo ships for ransom. Such things 
pale in comparison to what has been done to Somalia by the illegal fishers, the 
illegal dumpers, and most especially the illegal invasion of their country by 
U.S.-backed Ethiopian troops and the bombing and shelling of their country by 
U.S. planes and warships, but one can't pretend that the current actions are in 
any way designed to prevent such things in the future.


Eli Stephens
 Left I on the News
 http://lefti.blogspot.com



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