From: chrisb@seachg.uucp (Chris Blask)
Subject: Re: Somalia: The REAL U.S. mission
Reply-To: chrisb@seachg.UUCP (Chris Blask)
Organization: Me, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 92 19:02:13 GMT

An anonymous poster gave us this fact book on Somalia, apparently put out
by the CIA, and marked the sections pertinent to "American imperialism"
with "**".  I will assume that the sectinos in [] are his/her own
additions, and show a teeny little bias against anything the US may do in
any situation.  I'm gonna take a moment to look at these, 'cause I'm
missing the point, and maybe someone (our anonymous friend?) can help me
out.

>**Natural resources: uranium, and largely unexploited reserves
>of iron ore, tin, gypsum, bauxite, copper, salt

OK, so we want them for thier resources.  I could believe that this is part
of the motivation, perhaps even all of it.  The US has done some awful
things for resources.  I do not support it if this is the reason, and I'm
sure good countries like China, Russia, Venezuala, Romania, Italy and the
rest of the civilized world would never do anything like that, just the bad
ol' US.

>**Environment: recurring droughts; frequent dust storms over eastern
>plains in summer; deforestation; overgrazing; soil erosion; desertification

???  AND?  What's the point?  The US needs desert?

>**Note:  strategic location on Horn of Africa along southern approaches
>to Bab el Mandeb and route through Red Sea and Suez Canal.  [also
>Somalia is good location for a military base to launch air strikes
>against independant countries like Libya and Yemen and protect US
>colonies like Saudi Arabia.]

One:  if the US opens a base there they will be ridiculed by the entire
world, myself included, for being hypocritical doo-doos.  I doubt we'll see
it.  Also, it's not nice to call one country a colony and another an
"independent state" (puff out chest and stress each syllable); we can play
that game all day long and only prove it is a world of complex alliances.

>**Religion: almost entirely Sunni Muslim [interesting that they can sing
>Christmas Carols with the Marines.]

The US is big on Sunni Muslims (like Saddam, or as George would say "Sad
em")?  They're not really Sunni Muslims but actually albino Yaks?

>**Economy
>Overview: One of the world's least developed countries, Somalia
>has few resources. In 1988 per capita GDP was $210. Agriculture is the
>most important sector of the economy, with the livestock sector
>accounting for about 40% of GDP and about 65% of export earnings. Nomads
>and seminomads who are dependent upon livestock for their livelihoods
>make up about 50% of the population. Crop production generates only 10%
>of GDP and employs about 20% of the work force. The main export crop is
>bananas; sugar, sorghum, and corn are grown for the domestic market. The
>small industrial sector is based on the processing of agricultural
>products and accounts for less than 10% of GDP. At the end of 1988
>serious economic problems facing the nation were the external debt of
>$2.8 billion and double-digit inflation.

Ah, yes!  Definitely what the US needs - a third world nation to manage!
Of course, it's so obvious!!  No, really, what's the big US advantage

>**Agriculture: dominant sector, led by livestock raising (cattle, sheep,
>goats); crops--bananas, sorghum, corn, mangoes, sugarcane; not self-sufficient
>in food; fishing potential largely unexploited

Fish?  Sheep?  Goats?  We need these things?  Wait, "...largely
unexploited...", we need more grazing land?

C'mon, folks.  The US gov't can be as bad as the rest (worse, they have
more power), but give us something we can believe and debate about.  The US
is a fairly functional democracy, and we do not all get together and decide
what we won't tell the rest of the world.  If there are chunks of malicious
motives behind the Somalia thing, hopefully some of them will be found and
the people responsible will be dealt with accordingly.  I seriously doubt
that the more flammable of the accusations are anywhere near the mark; it
simply would not be a workable politicall scam - too much publicity, too
many variables, too many people involved.  I am not aware of any large
scale conspiracies which have worked.  The Jews do not get together and
decide how to take over the world (at least no more than Christians),
all the Blacks do not have meetings to decide to get Whitey, all the Whites
do not have meetings to plan to crush Blackey...  As cynical as _I_ am, I
can't help but think 'paranoid delusion' when I read quite a bit of stuff
on the net.  

Get some perspective!!  Let's nail the _REAL_ badguys and stop wasting
bandwidth on wild ranting (Hyper Bowl! {hyperbole}  soon to replace the 
Rose Bowl).

-chris blask

a .sigless Yankee living in the Canadian Tundra
	{whadayamean I don't get an igloo?}