by Chris Floyd
Sunday, June 24, 2007
The Bush-backed Ethiopian invasion of Somalia -- the third direct "regime change" action of the Terror War -- installed a faction of CIA-paid Somali warlords in power over the long-ravaged land. Now, inevitably, these violent gangs and warring clans are turning on each other, while the Ethiopian occupiers -- funded and trained by American forces -- are tightening the screws on the conquered people.
McClatchy Newspapers and the Washington Post report this weekend that forces of the "interim government" have broken into warring clan militias in the key port city of Kismayo, where the sub-clan of the new Somali president, Abdullah Yusuf, is battling it out with long-time rivals to gain control of the lucrative operations there. Hundreds of soldiers, using mortars, anti-aircraft fire and other heavy weapons, waged open battle in and around the port. This is the second major armed conflict within the new government's forces in the last two weeks, following a violent outbreak of clan violence among warlords in southern Somalia.
Meanwhile, the Post reports that the Ethiopian forces occupying the capital city of Mogadishu are cracking down hard on the populace there -- already decimated by the brutal Ethiopian-warlord attacks that consolidated the conquest of the city this spring. More than 400,000 people fled the attacks, which featured heavy weaponry used on residential areas, and hundreds of civilians were killed.
Now the Bush-backed Ethiopian forces are rounding up hundreds of Mogadishu businessmen suspected of supporting opposition to the invasion. In a grim echo of the virulently counterproductive polices of the American occupation in Iraq, the foreign invaders in Somalia have declared a curfew in the capital and are conducting house raids across the city. Again, businessmen -- i.e., some of the few people with money in the moonscape of the Somali economy -- are the primary targets of the raid.
In another move that will certainly warm the White House's heart, this weekend "Ethiopian troops accompanied by intelligence officials raided the offices of Hormud, the largest telecommunications company in Somalia," the Post reports:
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he believed that the raid was aimed at gathering phone records, which Hormud had refused to hand over. Ethiopian troops also busted open safes and locked drawers and absconded with thousands of dollars, he said.
Once again, as in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Terror War has empowered violent thugs, extremists and self-seeking warlords, radicalized the opposition, increased terrorism on all sides and inflicted untold misery and death on the innocent. Thievery and murder, chaos and repression, with America's backing, in America's name. Every day, Bush's Terror War plants new seeds of hatred, revenge and suffering in the hearts of thousands of people who have never wished the slightest harm to the United States. Every day, Bush teaches untold numbers of people that brutality, inhumanity and indiscriminate violence are the proper tools, the only tools, for pursuing their goals -- or just defending their lands, their families, from attack.
How great, and how bitter, will be the harvest from these seeds.