Interestingly, Lone also indicates that General John Abizaid, the current (now outgoing) U.S military chief of the Iraq war, was in Ethiopia a few weeks ago. What was he doing there.. http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story-010407135027.htm
From Black Listed News(14):
"Somalia is of geostrategic interest to the Bush administration, and the focus of operations and policy since 2001," writes Larry Chin(15). "This focus is a continuation of long-term policies of both the Clinton administration and the George H.W. Bush administrations. Somalia's resources have been eyed by Western powers since the days of the British Empire."
"A new U.S cleansing of Somalian 'tyranny' would open the door for these U.S oil companies to map and develop the possibly huge oil potential in Somalia," notes F. William Engdahl(16). "Yemen and Somalia are two flanks of the same geological configuration, which holds large potential petroleum deposits, as well as being the flanks of the oil choke point from the Red Sea."
In the matter of international relations, be they wars or trade or support of various kinds - we often find ourselves faced with the problem that difference in motivation can make a certain action either acceptable or something to condemn - sometimes also being the difference between legal and illegal according to international laws. One example is Iraq - if the invasion truly was triggered by a genuine belief that there were Weapons of Mass Destruction there and in general shaped and driven by concerns for human kind, then that would make the act perceived and classified differently than if we knew for certain it was based on motives of increased revenue for oil companies and securing regional presence for USA Inc. interests.
But just as was the case with the Iraq invasion and occupation, there are several very significant circumstances and factors that casts a deep shadow of doubt as to the alleged and officially stated reasons for the various ways in which support and aid has been given to certain actors in Somalia past and present. Interesting enough - the main factors seem to be the same as for Iraq: the strategical geographical location, the oil (and other geological resources such as water(17)) and an increased presence of other nations' interests(18)-nations growing in strength as military and economical competitors (such as China who gave much support following the tsunami(19) in 2004). Iraq was just about to shift from selling oil in Euro instead of U.S Dollars(20) when U.S launched the invasion. Maybe the recent increase in U.S and Western allies' demands for intervention in Sudan for humanitarian reasons, also have something to do with another recent increase - namely the supply of oil from Sudan to China.
As F. William Engdahl (21)notes in A Peek Behind Bush II's 'War on Tyranny'(22):
"Sudan, as noted, has become a major oil supplier to China whose national oil company has invested more than $3 billion since 1999, building oil pipelines from the south to the Red Sea port. The coincidence of this fact with the escalating concern in Washington about genocide and humanitarian disaster in oil-rich Darfur in southern Sudan, is not lost on Beijing. China threatened a U.N veto against any intervention against Sudan. The first act of a re-elected [sic] Dick Cheney late last year was to fill his vice presidential jet with U.N Security Council members to fly to Nairobi to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, an eerie reminder of Defense Secretary Cheney's 'humanitarian' concern over Somalia in 1991."
Also, there is the potential of cooperation between Asian nations and Middle East nations in trying to balance the power of the West in general and USA in particular -something well described in the last section of chapter 9 in Samuel Huntington's book Clash of Civilizations. Already there has been substantial support and exchange of knowledge, science, political backing etc between primarily China and Middle Easters countries such as Iran.
I understand that the presence would seem so much easier to handle if we weren't bothered by the past. But unfortunately we have a past to learn from so as to get a better future.
And as more and more people in the USA get involved in various organizations - military, governmental agencies, NGOs etc. - based on explicitly stated motives of these organizations, often of humanitarian and "world improvement" nature, then if for nothing else but to spare ourselves being tricked and abused we need to put actions, decisions and claims of the presence into a context of time and space to really be able to evaluate what to believe.
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