Menacing Somalia: Unholy Trinity of U.S Global Militarism, Meles's Ethiopia and Thuggish Warlords

US AC 130 helicopter gunships

By Amina Mire^[1]
June 13, 2007

On 26 December, 2006, Ethiopian tanks supported by US AC 130 helicopter gun ships^[2] invaded Somalia in order to install a puppet regime of the Transitional Federal Government (T.F.G.) by ousting the Union of Islamic Courts (U.I.C.). Six months earlier, in June 2006, the Somali people allowed the Union of Islamic Courts to take power to help end the anarchy that resulted from a 15-year civil war in the battered country. As a result, the Islamic Union Courts assumed centralised control over many parts in the South, including the capital city, Mogadishu. This move came about partly after it was revealed that the CIA was secretly working with Somali warlords and Ethiopia to invade Somalia. Despite U.S. cash payments to various warlords none was able to assert their authority over the population and bring law and order and security to the Somali people.

During their short lived tenure, the Union of Islamic courts brought peace and security to the areas under its control. However, in the context of post September 11, 2001, political stigmatisation, the Bush Administration had identified the UIC as a terrorist group. The Islamic government denied this. Many Somalis saw such rhetoric as a thinly disguised pretext for the US's desire to avenge the 1993 defeat of US Forces in Somalia. A recently published report by the U.S. Military Combating Terrorism Centre at West Point concludes that Al Qaida has failed to gain a foothold in Somalia.^{[3]Read More}