U.S. is the driving force behind the fighting in Somalia

After letting this thread cook for a little, no one has mentioned just how contradictory our efforts are in Somalia when compared to our efforts due North. We are helping the fight against radical Islam advancement in Somalia while paving the way for Islamic rule in Egypt, Libya and Syria. Is that part of the plan? We need the natural resources in Central Africa. Are we willing to give up everything else to gain a stronghold in developing virgin resources.

It started with Egypt which is now under control of the Muslim Brotherhood, The US pushed for Mubarek's ouster knowing what would fill the power vacuum. The MB got their founding father land back.

Libya is also turning into a MB stronghold and now we are helping to arm unidentified Syrian "rebels" in order to topple Assad. Remember those "unidentified rebels in Libya".. According to Reuters News, the rebels in Syria include the Free Syrian Army, al-Qaeda-style jihadists, the Muslim Brotherhood, and local pro-democracy Sunni liberals.

Somalia has a new constitution!! How are we going to work with this... It's all very strange... Its worded to appease Al Shabab

The constitution itself is not a bad bit of draftsmanship. It guarantees that Islam is the source of all law, and that no religion other than Islam shall be permitted in Somalia. This may sound harsh, but delegates didn't have much of a choice. These are the bare minimum necessary conditions if anyone hopes to persuade Al-Shabaab to accept the document. Besides, plenty of the delegates are strongly conservative Islamists themselves. And don't forget that there are many interpretations of Islamic Sharia law, from the Taliban's hardcore approach in Afghanistan to the United Arab Emirates' rather softer, more modern version.

What are we getting into???

But how much is a piece of paper worth in Somalia, no matter how elegantly-worded? Given the current situation, not much.

For a start, there's still that little problem of Al-Shabaab. The Islamist militant group is on the back foot, but by no means defeated.

They are still safely ensconced in their seaside capital of Kismayo, and their influence extends across much of southern Somalia. African Union troops that have been responsible for pushing them out of Mogadishu and other strongholds promise they'll be smashed by the end of August, but even if Al-Shabaab are pushed out of Kismayo it will remain a potent political force. Any constitution that is agreed before a political, as opposed to military, settlement with Al-Shabaab is reached is unlikely to provide the foundations of a unified nation.

Then there are Somalia's other fractures, most notably Somaliland, which operates completely independently, but also autonomous regions like Puntland and Galmadug. Puntland adopted its own new constitution in April, while Galmadug has just elected a president. Somaliland, meanwhile, has made it perfectly clear it wants nothing to do with any Somali state, future or present. Is this constitution meant to apply to these regions as well? Of course it is?the Transitional Federal Government's consistent position has been that there is just one Somalia, and they govern it. This has been supported by the international community. But how can they be expected to accept a document in which they had little to no say?

Yes, we all know that Somalia is a failed state. We know it needs fixing, and a constitution is an important part of that process. But it's a process, and some things have to happen before other things like constitution-drafting are possible. Somehow concluding the civil war with Al-Shabaab would be a good place to start. Starting meaningful discussions with Somaliland over their joint or separate futures is also necessary?don't forget that Somaliland is the only Somali territory to have enjoyed meaningful peace, stability and development over the last two decades.

So we eliminate Al Shabaab...What comes next?? Why are we investing so much.... right now...

It would also be helpful if the government could guarantee the security of the capital of this new Somali state. Even though Mogadishu is overrun with African troops and private security contractors, it's not a safe city. During the constitutional deliberations, a prominent radio comedian was shot and killed by unidentified assailants. He was well-known, however, for poking fun at Al-Shabaab militants. And Wednesday, as the text was being accepted, two huge blasts disrupted proceedings; two suicide bombers had blown themselves up at the gates of the venue, killing themselves and one security guard.

With so much work still to be done, it seems like Somalia's new constitution is an exercise in futility; and, by its unrepresentative nature, likely to harden divisions rather than encourage the reconciliation so necessary for Somalia's future.

Those private security contractors work for the U.S. They eliminate Al Shabaab and Somalia is still a nation ruled by Shariah. We just help clean up a little mess that has been posing a problem for years.

allafrica.com...

reply to post by jibeho


I think you're taking this "we" stuff a bit too seriously. The Bush family rose to power by illegally funding the Nazis.

The Bush family then was CIA -- tied to the assassination of JFK -- and the funding and training of Nazi-fascist client states throughout the third world.

O.K. so who is this "we" who "needs" resources from the third world. This of course was the real reason for the U.S. genocide against IndoChina and it was the same reason for genocide against the indigenous cultures of the U.S.

So basically Western civilization is an accelerating trend of genocidal resource extraction causing an ecological crisis worse than Earth has ever experienced before.

The "We" is basically the angel of death -- global apocalypse.

So then the Arab alliance with the U.S. elite goes back to the U.S. supporting the Nazi fascists also -- Cold War, Holy Warrior Ike was president. Washington was desperate for Arab allies. Enter an Islamist ideologue with an invitation to the White House and a plan for global jihad.

Indeed, adds Hermann Eilts, another veteran U.S. diplomat who was stationed in Saudi Arabia in the late '40s, American officials in Cairo had "regular meetings" with Ramadan's then-boss, Muslim Brotherhood leader Hassan al-Banna, "and found him perfectly empathetic." Over the four decades after Ramadan's visit to the Oval Office, the Muslim Brotherhood would become the organizational sponsor for generation after generation of Islamist groups from Saudi Arabia to Syria, Geneva to Lahore—and Ramadan, its chief international organizer, would turn up, Zeliglike, as an operative in virtually every manifestation of radical political Islam. The hardcore Islamists of Pakistan (see "Among the Allies," page 44), whose acolytes created the Taliban in Afghanistan and who have provided succor to Al Qaeda since the 1990s, modeled their organization on the Brotherhood. The regime of the ayatollahs in Iran grew out of a secret society called the Devotees of Islam, a Brotherhood affiliate whose leader in the 1950s was the mentor of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization, began as an official branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. The radical-right Egyptian Islamic Jihad and allied groups, whose members assassinated President Anwar Sadat of Egypt in 1981 and which merged with Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda in the 1990s, grew out of the Brotherhood in the 1970s. And some of the Afghan leaders who spearheaded the anti-Soviet jihad that was run by the CIA in the 1980s, and who helped bin Laden build the network of "Arab Afghans" that was Al Qaeda's forerunner, were Brotherhood members.

It's very much true that "radical Islam" is the creation of the elite West because the elite in the West routinely have to fund and create "both sides" of a conflict.

So then the Bush family has closer ties to the Arabs than to the U.S. domestic population and this is also true for the other financial elites of the U.S. -- the deal is that the U.S. dollar is the global currency as the "petrodollar" for banking loans, "hard currency" for oil sales and that the Arabs then invest their oil profits back into the U.S.

So previously Kissinger and Chase bank Rockefellers personally handled all of Iran's oil money as deposits in the U.S. and so obviously the elites want that money back and also direct control of the oil. The illegal sanctions on Iran exposed here To do so is like fighting the Soviets -- training any Arab elites to do terrorism is part of the routine. This is also why 9/11 was a false flag inside job because the CIA has used false flag inside jobs just as the Nazis used them to blame the Communists -- the CIA just continued the work of the Nazis in Europe.

So the "we" is actually class warfare of the elites against the working class of the U.S. and so the "oil crisis" of OPEC -- and the U.S. going into a floating currency exchange rate in the 1970s then set the stage for the oil glut lending to the third world -- by the IMF World Bank loan sharks creating the "debt crisis" and "structural adjustment programs" of the 1980s to control the resources of the third world.

All of this is an escalation that has also called for turning the middle class of the U.S. into a third world because it's all driven by automation of industry.

The military is funded by the tax payers and then the military automates the technology using drones, computers, etc.

So then technology enables the elite to use slave labor in Burma to extract oil and natural gas and then technology enables "fracking" to destroy the water supply of NYC and meanwhile the elite literally goes underground to hide from the ensuing apocalypse. It's like the "gated communities" on steroids -- the elite hiding in their bunkers in the underground FEMA cities.

reply to post by jibeho

We are helping the fight against radical Islam advancement in Somalia while paving the way for Islamic rule in Egypt, Libya and Syria.

Others have noticed this how schizo the us government is or bi polar one day fight em next day help em.

Considering what happened in Somalia in the 90s forget them.

reply to post by neo96




It's been a long time a 'coming. Change is going to come.

U.S. imperialism is just the latest of Western genocidal colonialism going back 500 plus years.

It's Africa...I don't think they would even noticed us over there with them killing each other...I was in Somalia and it was crazy how they fought each other until we came to try and provide humanitarian aid and all the factions stopped fighting each other and started fighting us...I guess we will never learn.

reply to post by Xtrozero

The article begins by examining the effects of Italian colonization on Somalia’s economy, agricultural practices and political structure. Before going through the Italian rule over Somalia, some of the main features of pre-colonial Somalia are shown in order to better illustrate the damages caused by colonization of the country. Then, we take a look at the post-colonial state in Somalia and its bearings on the Somali society. Afterward, we shed a light on Siad Barre’s coup in 1969 and locate his regime in the Cold War era. Special attention is given to land policies during Barre’s dictatorship, as well as the involvement of the IMF, the World Bank and foreign donors in shaping agricultural practices in Somalia. The effects of the Ethiopian invasion and the civil war on human and food security are also evaluated. The last part of the analysis is concerned with Somalia and post-cold war politics and globalization.

Somalia In Context By Jahanzeb Hussain

When I used to hang out in the Somalian Mall in Minnesota I was the only white person who regularly ate in their restaurants, used their computer cafes, etc.

O.K. one of the Somalians actually thought I was Italian!! Why? Because he said:

Minnesotans are so conservative.

What did he mean? Conservative in that this mall was in a neighborhood completely surrounded by "whites" and yet none of the Minnesotans went in there.

Hmm. So willful ignorance en masse aka racism.

Well things have gotten better I think as the local news began to cover the Somalians more -- although I saw a recent article in the newspaper about the Somalians starting their own businesses in small towns in Minnesota where Somalians have moved to work in the meat processing plants -- turkeys.

So the local whites were again afraid and pissed off -- why? Because the Somalians were congregating on the sidewalk to chit chat and generally have nice conversations. haha. Anyway the article was overall positive saying how Somalians are very entrepreneurial.

Again Somalians have an ancient culture similar to India in terms of a sophisticated garment textile industry. To depict Africans as somehow more bellicose than any other people is racist and to ignore the effects of Western imperialism on Somalia is willful ignorance.

Nope I'm not Italian I had to tell the Somalian. I am a "Minnesotan." haha.

. The local economy was transformed by the Italians from a versatile and self-sufficient one to a banana plantation, where Somalis were used as slave labor.

Gee sounds like what the Minnesotans did to the indigenous Dakota and Anishinabe peoples.