From: ww@nyxfer.UUCP
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american
Date: 26 Dec 92 19:55 PST
Subject: Somalia:US Seeks Permanent Base
Nf-ID: #N:Tu9ewB4w165w@nyxfer.uucp:319385145:000:6166
Nf-From: nyxfer.uucp!ww    Dec 26 19:55:00 1992


Subject: Somalia:US Seeks Permanent Base
From: nyxfer!ww (Workers World Service)


Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit


Somalia: U.S. seeks permanent base 

By Sara Flounders

It is now obvious that U.S. Marines are not planning on leaving
Somalia any time soon; that the huge military intervention is not
a one-month food assistance program; and that the U.S. has revived
its Gulf war coalition--once again under the flag of the United
Nations--to expand the occupation of Somalia.

As the character of the intervention becomes increasingly clear, a
growing political opposition is also emerging in the U.S. This
opposition is reflected in nationally coordinated demonstrations
and in some media coverage, particularly in the Black press and
community papers.

CONQUERORS POSING AS HUMANITARIANS

Pentagon forces disembarking in Somalia under the pretext of
bringing humanitarian supplies are acting like imperialist
conquerors. This should come as no surprise.

The major part of this operation involves shooting Somalis--leading
to several deaths, military sweeps, house-to-house searches and
establishing roadblocks and "safety perimeters."

The delivery of humanitarian food aid has been the excuse to seize
total control of the ports, airfields, highways and communications
of this strategic country.

Other imperialists join intervention

Other imperialist nations have joined in the occupation, and are
conducting themselves in the same arrogant manner. The French
Foreign Legion, Belgian commandos, and British, Italian and
Canadian elite troops are involved. The New York Times reported
Dec.  troops from 28 countries are expected to take part.

Germany is sending military forces in violation of its
constitution. Written after World War II, it specifically states
that German troops cannot be used beyond NATO territory. Japan,
still held back from sending troops by mass opposition and
constitutional prohibitions, is sending money for the military
occupation. 

U.S. Gen. Joseph P. Hoar, who heads the Central Command, said Dec.
18 that U.S. forces had established bases in Mogadishu, Bale Dogle
and Baidoa and intended to expand into Kismayu, Gailalassi,
Bardera, Hoddur and Belt Uen. He also bragged that the U.S. forces
were going beyond their original commitment to disarm only those
Somalis who threaten them.

LONG-TERM OCCUPATION

The groundwork to cover a longer occupation of this strategically
located African country is already being carefully orchestrated.
The corporate media have begun to quote specialists and military
personnel on the need for an expanded role and a longer stay. 

The UN Security Council, completely under the sway of the U.S.
since the collapse of the USSR, is also supposedly urging U.S.
troops to remain as an occupying force far beyond the announced
one-month feeding program in order to disarm the Somali population,
establish an infrastructure and set up a government.

From the beginning, this has been the purpose of the intervention.
On Dec. 5  Joint Chiefs of Staff head Gen. Colin Powell explained,
"We want to put in a large enough force so that we could dominate
the entire country."

Months ago, many international relief agencies began to urge the
U.S. government to provide cargo planes and air drops to deliver
food directly to villages in Somalia. No assistance came as huge
numbers of Somalis starved to death--more than 300,000 by some
estimates.

The U.S. Air Force is by far the largest in the world. It could
have easily and inexpensively provided famine relief to every needy
village and town in Somalia by airlifting in supplies.
International relief agencies, lacking aircraft, could only
stockpile food at several major ports in Somalia and then attempt
to move the supplies through overland convoys on dangerous roads.
The U.S. corporate media expressed great moral outrage that various
militias--which had been armed and financed by the Pentagon for the
past 18 years--were looting these convoys.

Using this as a pretext, the Pentagon has now stepped in to
suppress the armed groups it created. The way the occupation is
unfolding has little to do with providing famine relief or feeding
the survivors. In fact, the famine began to subside weeks ago after
the rains came and new crops began growing.

Even today the U.S. could feed far more starving people, much
faster and at less expense, with a large airlift. But Washington
has chosen aircraft carriers, destroyers and tanks to deliver
food--proof that it is the strategic position of Somalia that most
interests the Pentagon. 

STRATEGIC POSITION

The racist contempt of U.S. officialdom toward the Somali people is
reflected in a statement by a national security advisor, David
Winterford of the Naval Post-Graduate School. "Somalia as a country
is not worth much, but its geography is priceless," he said
recently. "Whoever controls Somalia could control the southern
entrance to the Red Sea and thus the Suez Canal ... a prime
location from which to influence the political stability of the
Middle East."

Other Pentagon advisors are cheering the "humanitarian precedent"
this occupation sets for intervention in Yugoslavia, Sudan or
Haiti. 

This scenario of feeding the hungry is only slightly different from
the pretext of defending the self-determination of small nations.
The Pentagon used that one for its devastating destruction of Iraq.
In a similar vein, fighting drug lords was the cover for the 1990
invasion of Panama.

But there is growing recognition in this country that the Pentagon
may have cynically allowed a crisis to develop in Somalia and then
intervened to establish control of a strategic area linking Africa
to the Middle East. Debate and protests are already being heard as
anti-war forces begin to mobilize.

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if
source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; email: ww%nyxfer@igc.apc.org; "workers"
on PeaceNet; on Internet: "workers@mcimail.com".)
 

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