David Axe has written a pleasant fantasy about US involvement in Somalia over at Wired’s Danger room: Pentagon America Intervenes in Somalia, Quietly (Corrected). It starts out:
Quietly and with baby steps,
the Pentagon’s newest combatant commandthe U.S. is intervening in one of the world’s most tenacious conflicts.
One of the main reasons there is such a violent and tenacious conflict in Somalia is because of US intervention.
This would be a very nice story if it were true. I myself love to hear true stories of US generosity and benevolence. When true, these stories reinforce my love for this country and the constitutional and democratic foundations of its government. Unfortunately, Mr. Axe does not tell a true story. The true part is the US $5 million coming from the US State Department for a Somali security force. Although it will be interesting to see what actually happens to the money and who gets to spend and keep it.
Beginning in late December 2006 the US Ethiopian proxies invaded Somalia and overthrew the only functioning government Somalia had in about 15 years, the Islamic Courts Union, ICU. During the brief rule of the ICU, relative peace and stability returned to Somalia. Under the ICU there was no piracy by Somalis off the Somali coast, documented in this report from Chatham House PDF: Piracy in Somalia. That peace was brutally ended by the Ethiopian invasion, supported by US bombing of the civilian population, creating a worse humanitarian crisis than in Darfur. For more detail you can read a thorough a well documented report by Amina Mire on the invasion and its aftermath here: Menacing Somalia: Unholy Trinity of U.S Global Militarism, Meles’s Ethiopia and Thuggish Warlords.
The Bush administration alleged it was pursuing al Qaeda in Somalia. But as a West Point study cited by Amina Mire points out, al Qaeda was completely unsuccessful in Somalia. The Somali’s did not like them. The US sponsored an invasion, and caused a severe and ongoing humanitarian crisis for nothing, or for no reason that has been honestly revealed.
As Chris Floyd writes in The 13th Circle: Somalia’s Hell and the Triumph of Militarism:
… the extent of Washington’s direct involvement in the ongoing destruction of Somalia, which as we have often noted here, involved not only arming, training and funding the Ethiopian invaders, but also dropping US bombs on fleeing refugees, lobbing US missiles into Somali villages, renditioning refugees — including American citizens — into captivity in Ethiopia’s notorious dungeons, and running U.S. death squads in Somalia to “clean up” after covert operations. (The latter is no deep dark secret, by the way; officials openly boasted of it to Esquire Magazine.)
Now, as anyone not completely blinded by imperial hubris could have predicted, the entire misbegotten exercise has collapsed into the worst-case scenario. A relatively stable, relatively moderate government which held out a promise of better future for the long-ravaged land was overthrown– ostensibly to prevent it from becoming a hotbed of radical extremism. The resulting violence, chaos and brutal occupation by foreign forces led directly and inevitably to — what else? — a rise in radical extremism. Thousands of innocent people have been killed, hundreds of thousands have been driven from their homes, millions have been plunged into the direst poverty and the imminent threat of starvation and disease, unspeakable atrocities and unbearable suffering are arising, as they always do in any situation, anywhere, when a human community is destroyed.
David Axe continues his tale:
Somalia hasn’t had a functional central government in 18 years. Clan conflict, starvation and anarchy have contributed to what the U.S. Army’s top intel agent for Africa called a “vortex of violence” where the fighting at times escapes any rational motivation. That vortex of violence is a hallmark of so-called “Fifth-Generation Warfare.”
The Pentagon’s new Africa Command, more than any other U.S. command, is designed to wage 5GW, according to the command boss, Army General Kip Ward. Since military force often makes the vortex worse, Ward said Africom would “foster continued dialogue and development … enabling the growth of strong and just governments and legitimate institutions to support the development of civil societies.”
Somalia was returned to this vortex of violence by a US sponsored invasion. I think there is no question that military force makes, and in Somalia has made, the vortex worse. The US has been stirring the cauldron of 5GW. Bombing civilians, renditioning captives, and employing death squads are not the same as fostering “continued dialogue” in any lexicon. Yet these are what the US, the Pentagon, the State Department, and AFRICOM, have actually been doing.
You can view some pictures from the invasion of Somalia in Mire’s article, Menacing Somalia: Unholy Trinity of U.S Global Militarism, Meles’s Ethiopia and Thuggish Warlords,
or in these Somalia pictures from the Flickr photostream from Pan-African News Wire.
Added January 17, 2009:
If 5GW has been defined, I doubt what is described here meets the definition of 5GW. I think the following from an article about HTS, the Human Terrain System, is more on target in that regard:
Gates and Patreaus are … to blame for perpetuating the belief that Irregular Warfare and Asymmetric Warfare are different from past Guerilla/Unconventional wars the United States has been involved with, whether fought in urban or jungle terrain (the singular difference being the globalization of insurgent warfare).
As one source put it, “After the takeover in the North of Iraq (the Mosul area) by the Green Beret’s with their trained Peshmerga’s, they were kicked out by General Patreaus, who during that time was the 101st Commander. He did this because it was his Battlespace. Our so called military leaders are part of the problem. That is why we’ve been in neck deep in this whole thing for seven years. Every military commander (Colonels on up to Generals) that are not Green Beret’s are trying to justify their existence in this Unconventional War. The military has even gone as far as creating terms like Irregular Warfare and Asymmetric Warfare (re-inventing the wheel). The term Special Operations Forces in the military is used loosely now because the military wants everybody to be SPECIAL. Besides, if the Green Beret’s were allowed free reign in this war, what would we do with all the MRAPS, TANKS,STRYKERS, and all other sorts of junk that we bought for the rest of the troops that have no business fighting in this type of war? Bottom line is that our military is still set up to fight a Conventional War.”
January 6, 2009 at 11:53 pm
Actually, you’re totally right about Somalia’s problems being exacerbated by U.S. intervention. That’s a point I’ve made repeatedly. See here: http://warisboring.com/?p=787
The current State/Africom involvement in Somalia is just the latest chapter in a long history of U.S. involvement (some would say “meddling”) in the country.
January 7, 2009 at 12:55 pm
the u.s. has had a role in training the TFG security & military forces all along, mostly through proxies. that’s one of the aspects i’d expect to see actual investigative reporting cover. and, as the u.n. monitoring group on somalia continues to point out in their rpts, all of it continues in violation of the arms embargo.
from what i’ve gathered, most of the training of somali police forces has been under the authority of the ethiopians
but then there’s this new outta nairobi today from kenya broadcasting company
kenya is very involved in the east african standby brigade, though, which is an entirely different beast, part of a larger effort to amass proxy forces for pax americana on the continent & beyond
[older, but still very relevant context from le monde diplomatic -- United States: the new scramble for Africa]
re AFRICOM’s role in this, & loosely tying in to somalia, here’s one:
AFRICOM has been much more involved than just transport, though. that’s what i would expect a good investigative reporter to elaborate on.
finally, fitting into the larger picture here
quoting (not endorsing) robert kaplan
sick!
January 8, 2009 at 12:09 am
thanks for the flicker link, x croc
just reread what i typed earlier – should have clarified that i was referring to training of somali police since the TFG entered mogadishu in early 2007. and i must have really been in a hurry, as i have no idea why i mentioned investigative reporting…
also, here’s axe’s latest press release for the u.s. military – U.S. Wages First Battles in New Generation of War, devoid of context or critical examination, as usual
January 8, 2009 at 11:34 pm
@David Axe, I very much appreciate you dropping by and commenting. I find myself at a bit of a loss as to how to respond. I read the piece you linked, as well as your more recent piece that b real linked. Originally a friend of mine sent me the link for your Danger Room post and asked me my opinion (to put it politely) which is why I wrote this post. When I read Quietly and with baby steps my jaw dropped.
5GW or nation building, or stability operations, or proxy war all boil down to these 3 steps:
* Destabilize a country or region using proxies
* Bring in aid/peacekeeping/stability operations
* Establish a nominal new government and train its military to be proxies, nation building, so that it will act as an obedient client state, a de facto colony (and the new proxies can be used to stabilize/destabilize other regions.)
I watched the proxy wars in the 1980s when the US and the USSR did all these things. That should have discredited the concept. I saw the horrors as the after effects played out in the 90s when the US and USSR stepped back, but the arms trade and military rivalries they began and nurtured continued to grow. For example every militant group that ravaged Liberia got its initial training and leadership start with the training the US supplied to Samuel Doe’s forces when he overthrew the elected government of Liberia. In Sudan the US CIA is good buddies with the Sudanese security services and often cooperate with them. The US has played on many sides of the conflicts in Sudan for decades.
You quote:
To me the first paragraph quoted above sounds exactly like those words by Bush’s aid, generally attributed to Karl Rove:
Just read “the reality based community” for “an old-world paradigm”
And “that paradigm has to evolve” sounds like the rest of what Rove was saying:
And the problem is, in destabilizing a region in order to follow up with “nation building”, the tools are human suffering, fear and instability, often known as terrorism. These are US weapons, our weapons. Using proxies (in Somalia by sponsoring the Ethiopian invasion, and bombing civilians in support, and imposing a hated government of warlords) allows the principals/US to pretend their/our hands are clean. But real people die, many more real people suffer horribly. The US/we stand back with “clean” hands, reap the profits, oil, minerals, etc, and the targets and the proxies suffer the loss of blood and treasure. Old paradigm or new paradigm, this does not change. I know you have seen this, but the point seems to be lost in your writing.
I realize that if I were embedded with US forces I would not want to write anything to disrespect any of the people I was working with, who had shown me kindness and hospitality, and had spoken to me honestly. I cannot really speak to the ethical dilemma this creates, other than to say it creates an ethical dilemma.
Again, I do appreciate you taking the trouble to visit and comment.
@b real, Thank you for the links and thoughtful comments. As to Kaplan, too sick! I have tried to address some of why it is so sick here.
January 14, 2009 at 12:05 am
reuters: U.S. helps Africa’s armies talk to each other
January 16, 2009 at 7:20 pm
I recently told a colleague and blogger who helped persuade me to start blogging that I find I have only two things to say, wtf, and can’t we all just get along. She said all lefty bloggers were in that position, so not to worry. This particular story leaves me saying both, as usual.
It would be nice if the US would give this kind of communications support to US first responders, so they would be able to communicate in emergencies. It has been talked about since 9/11, but I gather not much has been done except to give cronies fat contracts that accomplished nothing.
And I am sure this exercise does support a lot of US goals, helping African countries to help the US to help itself to their own and each others’ resources.
January 21, 2009 at 12:47 am
Ethiopia troops commence training for new police recruits
probably in violation of the arms embargo, like all the other times
January 23, 2009 at 12:21 am
As we know from long experience, some are more equal than others, so the rules don’t really apply.
March 10, 2009 at 2:49 pm
galrahn on axe:
March 10, 2009 at 10:00 pm
A tad bit uncritical, not exactly evaluation and research, galrahn sure is the starry eyed fanboy here.