Khartoum worse than Mogadishu

Remember Black Hawk Down? That movie was based on a battle between US troops and local militias in 1993 Mogadishu, capital of Somalia. Thirty years later, US troops are still there. Still bringing freedom and human rights. Things still not getting better. No matter how many bad guys we eliminate, there's always more. Mogadishu is a non-stop cavalcade of terror attacks, random bombings, political assassinations, and all-round mayhem. So I was taken aback to see, on Al Jazeera News, a busload of Somalis, who had been evacuated from Khartoum, ecstatic to be safely back in Mogadishu! That's how bad things are in Sudan! I was further taken aback that a sad-sack third-world country like Somalia can successfully evacuate its citizens from Sudan, while Canada cannot. That's how bad things are in Canada!

Top brass couldn't drive Taliban out of Kandahar or racists out of their ranks. Should we trust them with the vaccine roll-out?

Canadians were aghast at the revelations unearthed by the Somalia Commission more than 25 years ago. The inquiry exposed a culture of rampant racism in the ranks of the Canadian Armed Forces and led to calls for reform. Fast forward a quarter century, and guess what? Last week the Toronto Star treated us to this headline; Canadian Armed Forces moves to crack down on racism and extremism in its ranks.

That racism nut is apparently a tough one for the Forces to crack... but that fact doesn't seem to temper the wave of adulation greeting the news that we've got a Major-General supervising our national pandemic vaccine roll-out. According to CTV, the military already has dozens of officers embedded with the Canada Public Health Agency. 

Same deal here in Ontario, where Premier Doug has tapped retired General Rick Hillier to oversee vaccine distribution. Hillier was the guy who stupidly promised to run the Taliban "murderers and scumbags" out of Afghanistan in short order. That was in 2005. By 2008 Hillier had retired from the Forces to pursue opportunities in the private sector, and today the murderers and scumbags are negotiating with the US government about their (the US, not the murderers and scumbags) final surrender, or, if you will, "victory." Hillier will trouser a cool $20 thou/month for his vaccine efforts.

Our future is in the most trusted hands our politicians can find. I for one am not impressed.

Twenty-five years after Black Hawk Down, US still bringing security and stability to Somalia

Well, if there's one thing you have to admire about Uncle Sam, he's not the type to cut and run...

More than twenty-five years after Black Hawk Down, US military officials are finally feeling optimistic for the future of Somalia. In fact, if all goes to plan, US forces may be able to say "mission accomplished" in a mere seven years from now.

Coincidentally, Somalia's Norwegian-Somali Prime Minister Hassan Khaire was in Washington this week, checking in with John Bolton. Bolton is very impressed with the economic reforms that Khaire and Somalia's American-Somali President, Mohamed Mohamed, have been instituting.

Khaire established his economics bona fides as "Executive Director for Africa" at Soma Oil and Gas. Since Soma's only business is in Somalia, the position would have been a pretty big deal. It gave Khaire valuable insights not only into the oil and gas business, but into patronage networks between business and political elites in Somalia and beyond.

It's no coincidence that both President and PM are business-friendly hyphenated Somalis more loyal to big business than to their own people. Soma Oil and Gas is fronted by a British Aristocrat, backed by a Russian Oligarch, and based in London. The company has a controversial agreement with the Mogadishu government to earn an ownership stake in lucrative off-shore oil fields in return for seismic mapping of the seabed.

The think tank here at Falling Downs predicts that the US mission in Somalia will be extended as long as necessary to ensure the security and stability of those oil fields once they are in production.

Uncle Sam's adventures in Africa

The recent media kerfuffle over US troops in Niger didn't so much concern US troops in Niger as it did the Trump condolence call to one of the widows of the servicemen who died there. As such, the "story" wasn't about US troops in Africa, but about whether or not the POTUS is an a-hole, as if the answer to that question is somehow inconclusive and the matter requires further debate.

A host of your top-end US politicos have since come forward to claim that they had no idea there were US troops in Niger. According to some of the stuff I've been reading (admittedly on non MSM sites) the only country in Africa that does NOT have US boots on the ground is Zimbabwe. Not to worry; the National Endowment for Democracy (that US government "non-government organization" - and a shout-out to Orwell is in order here) have been busy beavers there, tilling the soil to prepare for the inevitable demise of the crotchety Bobby Mugabe. 

According to General Thomas Waldhauser, AFRICOM boss, the US has an "enduring interest" in Niger and is there to fight terrorists and create stability.

Of course!

Just like they'll soon be fighting terror and bringing stability to the entire continent!

They've been bringing stability to Somalia for forty years now, with underwhelming results. One could argue that Somalia enjoys far less stability today than it had when America first started gifting them stability, but that's another place where the US has "enduring interests."

Just like they'll soon have enduring interests all across Africa!

And might these "interests" have anything to do with the best interests of Africans?

Not likely. After all, Uncle Sam's regime doesn't run the USA in the best interests of 350 million Americans; it's unlikely that they've got the best interests of 1.2 billion Africans in mind.

No, General Waldhauser is talking about the enduring interests of America's one percent, the clique of war-profiteers and their acolytes who are determined to rule the world.

While I didn't notice much in the way of congratulatory reportage, AFRICOM celebrated it's tenth anniversary this month.

They're just getting started...

Does anyone believe Kenya killed 100 militants?

Our favourites in the Dark Continent certainly know how to treat themselves well.

Apparently, Mr. Goodluck over there in Nigeria runs a government whose legislators are the best paid in the world!

And our dear buddy in Kenya, that Uhuru Kenyatta fellow who's been busy bobbing and weaving to avoid the long arm of the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges, comes in second!

Oddly enough, our two bestest besties in the Dark Continent are facing down "Islamic insurgencies."

Now a cynic might be inclined to suggest that the reason these countries are besieged by "insurgencies" is because they are cesspools of graft and corruption.

But no. We are informed day after day by the media Big Dogs that both Kenya and Nigeria are beset by Islamic radicals, and they must therefore be given a free pass for any minor abuses of civil rights, human rights, etc. that may come up in the course of "fighting terror."

Both the Boko Haram and Shabaab terror outfits just sprung up out of nowhere, and neither have anything to do with the endemic corruption that cripples meaningful development in both Nigeria and Kenya.

Kenya scored a PR coup of sorts with the news that they have killed 100 Shabaab militants since yesterday's Shabaab attack on a bus. That's made headlines throughout the Nations of Virtue.

That's a major win in the PR department.

In the real world, even if some of those killed were in fact "militants," that merely primes the pump for the next round of violence.

The reason that radical groups like BH and the Shabaab get traction in Africa is because the populace is more than fed up with the corrupt West-friendly stooges who have been looting their countries for years.

Raping Somalia for fun and profit

When President Hassan Mohamud was elected in a highly dubious process (no popular vote was held) two years ago, his backers in the West were ecstatic. After 25 years in the wilderness, Somalia finally had the Moses who would lead his people to a future of peace, prosperity, and democracy.

That same circle of Mohamud cheerleaders in Western capitals were almost as ecstatic this week when a US Hellfire missile dispatched al-Shabab boss Ahmed Godane to his reward. It is as though these "terror" outfits exist only because some malevolent but charismatic personality has rallied a few malcontents to a cause, and peace will descend once that leader is eliminated.

The fact this strategy never works is no reason for the warmongers in the Nations of Virtue not to use it again and again and again. After all, to pursue a different strategy, like sitting down with these so-called terrorists and discussing their legitimate grievances, would involve conceding that they do indeed have legitimate grievances.

That's not a concession that the West is prepared to countenance.

Unfortunately for the deaf, dumb, and blind interventionists in those Western capitals, two related stories in their own media today serve as a brilliant recruiting campaign for the very terrorists we are supposedly fighting, or paying the African Union to fight.

The first concerns a UN report that implicates Somalia's Moses in a scheme to steal tens of millions in assets from the country.

The second is about a HRW report that accuses AU peace-keepers of systemic sexual exploitation of Somali women and girls.

Somalis understand the truth; the AU is an army of occupation and the President is a stooge of the West, and a crooked one at that. From that realization it is not a far reach to recognize that those so-called terrorists are resistance fighters, and that the real terrorists are the ones bought, paid for, and directed from London, Washington, and Paris.

What next for Somalia after US assassination of al-Shabab leader?

Western narratives about our "enemies" typically place an unwarranted focus on the importance of the leading personalities of whatever terror group or drug cartel or rogue state happens to be the enemy du jour. The conventional wisdom is that if we can eliminate this or that charismatic leader, often characterized as "cutting off the head of the snake", we have solved the problem.

The gloating headlines in the Western media about the assassination of Ahmed Abdi Godane by US missile strike is just the latest example. Have we really struck a major blow against al-Shabab?

History tells us not bloody likely. Did Israel's execution of Ahmed Yassin, a quadriplegic in a wheelchair, end Hamas? No!

Did the murder of Pablo Escobar stem the flow of cocaine into America? No!

There are multitudinous examples of hubristic  Western crowing about our "successes" in decapitating the snake that have only resulted in more snakes.

The enduring success of the "head of the snake" trope is due to its function in diverting attention from the role that our policies play in creating and nurturing the failed states, terror groups, drug cartels, etc., who inevitably morph into our next mortal enemy.

How much more agreeable to place the blame for Hamas on a charismatic leader than in noxious Israeli-US policy.

How much more palatable to blame drug cartels on Pablo and his many pretenders instead of on our own policies.

So back to al-Shabab. America has once again cut the head off the snake...

Is this the end of al-Shabab?

Has America solved a problem?

No!

When our enemies are our enemies because of failed US policies, we cannot expect to eliminate them by eliminating their leadership.

A new al-Shabab leader, younger, smarter, better educated, more ruthless and ambitious, was already waiting in the wings.

The murder of Godane has not eliminated a problem.

It has made the problem worse.

Hollande the Conqueror seeks his place in history books

Watch out AFRICOM, those socialist Gauls are outflanking you on the left! American hegemony over Africa is at risk!

Hollande the Conqueror has launched not one but two military forays into the heart of the Dark Continent in the past twenty-four hours.

In Mali Bwana Hollande has unleashed helicopter gunships to push back the evil-doers who threaten to overrun the nation's goldfields from their stronghold in the north of the country. That the coup in Mali and the current troubles there are the direct result of NATO having liberated the Libyan oilfields from the clutches of the evil dictator Gaddafi in 2011 are facts not often commented on in the Nations of Virtue.

Simultaneously at least three French troop helicopters dropped commandos in Bulo Marer, Somalia to free intelligence operative Denis Allex who has been held captive by al Shabab for the past three years. The elite French troops met fierce resistance and sustained an unconfirmed number of casualties before fleeing. At least one French soldier is believed to have been taken captive by al Shabab fighters.

This is the biggest victory for the Shabab in months and is sure to inspire their many sympathizers in Somalia and beyond. There's nothing like a dimwitted military fiasco to boost the morale of the enemy.

Congo tango

Wasn't that long ago that our standard expectation of our allies in the dark continent was that when Uncle Sam said "jump" they'd ask, how high?

Nowadays the more frequent reply to an Uncle Sam request is "how much?" As in how much are you going to give us in money and guns.

But the reality on the ground is that even those days are numbered. We are soon going to see a new African reality. When Uncle Sam says "jump", his African allies will say "fuck you."

We're getting a hint of that already with the brouhaha over Ugandan support for the M23 rebels in the Congo. A UN report leaked a few weeks ago fingers both Uganda and Rwanda as being the prime movers behind the M23 group, which has succeeded in routing the Congolese army from a large swath of mineral-rich north eastern Congo.

Uganda has responded by threatening to quit the Western-backed coalition that has managed to install a puppet government in Somalia. Reuter's reports that the puppet PM has sent an urgent plea to the Ugandans; please don't go.

This is Uganda playing hardball. What they're saying is that if we want them to do our dirty work fighting the Shabaab in Somalia, then we're going to have to look the other way when it comes to their hanky-panky in Congo.

Who do they think they are?

You'd almost think they see themselves as an independent nation or something!

Liberating Somalia one barrel of oil at a time

When he hosted the Somalia Salvation Summit last week British PM David Cameron was full of high-toned rhetoric about freedom and democracy and all the usual good stuff we in the righteous West like to lecture the rest of the world about.

Turns out that behind the scenes he was busy as can be lining up oil exploration deals for British companies. Yes, there's oil in that long benighted wasteland, and it's calling out to Britain to be freed!

British and American companies are hoping to cash in now that the Somalia "government" is willing to sign deals in return for perpetual propping up.

That's a bit of a problem. The "government" tends to meet in Kenya because there's no place in Somalia considered safe enough. That's because popular sentiment among the people of Somalia tends to favor Islamist groups like al Shabaab and the Union of Islamic Courts.

The only reason Somalia is not an Islamic Republic under Sharia law is because whenever the Islamist groups appear too close for (our) comfort to consolidating power, we send in Ethiopia or the Kenyans to impose our version of secular governace. These are the people with whom we are now making deals for Somalia's energy resources.

The al-Shabaab have already announced that all contracts entered into by the puppet will be considered null and void, and that the country's nascent oil infrastructure will be considered a legitimate target.

That would seem to set the stage for many years of blood for oil in the horn of Africa.

Their blood. Our oil.

So long Syria, hello Somalia!

There’s enough hot air coming out of London this week to send a fleet of dirigibles to the horn of Africa, there to rain thousands of tons of “projectiles of democratic values” down on the al-Shabaab evil doers currently doing their evil on the benighted people of Somalia.

All the usual suspects are in town for the Somalia Salvation Summit, usual suspects meaning NATO and a few hangers-on.

The fact that Clinton and Cameron are making bold pronouncements about Somalia also tells you something about Syria, i.e. that NATO has washed its hands and isn’t about to get more involved than it already is.

And if they’ve had a change of heart about Syria, it also tells you something about where their thoughts are on Iran. Syria has essentially been a proxy front in the war on Iran.

So while there’s going to be continued braying for Persian blood from the usual right-wing war-mongers in Likud and the GOP, the reality is that NATO has decided on smaller fish for their next adventure.

Like Somalia. After generations of anarchy during which we occasionally sent in our proxies from Ethiopia or Kenya to flatten a few villages, the fact that Somalia suddenly merits its very own conference means bigger things are in the works.

Hillary Clinton herself has announced that Somalia stands at a crossroads.

Cameron must have thought he heard “crosshairs” instead of crossroads and immediately offered to begin bombing raids on the al-Shabaab.

Canada’s John Baird is just hoping the world has forgotten the last time Canadians were bringing democracy to Somalia. That effort resulted in the torture and murder of a number of Somali civilians.

So good luck to you, Somalia! Good things are just around the corner now that NATO’s got your back.

And carry on with that nuke program Ayatollahs; you’re good to go for now.