You know, let me begin by saying that the world has become used to what is called “targeted assassinations” -- in Gaza by Israel, in Afghanistan by NATO, and in Iraq, as well. But let us be clear that all such attacks are illegal under international law. No one has been identified and tried and sentenced. Invariably, lots of innocent people die in such attacks, sometimes scores, as happened recently in Pakistan. So these are illegal attacks. But, in addition, this has escalated this war, begun basically by Ethiopia when they invaded Somalia. And it has opened -- and this is what is so incredulous to me, I find, incredulous that the US has opened another front in the Muslim world. I do not understand what the intention is.
If US was sincere and honest about bringing peace and stability to Somalia then US should have worked with the Islamic Courts Union, which had lots of support and controlled virtually all of southern Somalia. The international community should have engaged, the US -- should have engaged with them to ensure that there was no terror coming out of Somalia. This is completely reckless
But it is also inevitable, because the US, using the issue of terror as the goal to defeat terror, wants to place in Somalia -- and it is succeeding so far -- a client regime, which will go along with what it wishes to do, as happened in Iraq. You know, there’s a strategic region, and they want a client regime in there. And the new regime immediately came out in support of the US attacks, even though it acknowledged that lots of people had been killed who are not terrorists.
Somalia sits at the tip of what is called the Horn of Africa. This is one of the most strategic regions in the world, after the Middle East, because through the Red Sea, you have daily, you know, scores of oil tankers and warships passing back and forth, because of the wars in the Middle East. It also is newly oil-rich. There are extensive reports, terrible reports, that Somalia now also has oil, just like most other countries in the region have.
The US has a huge military base in Djibouti, which is neighboring Somalia. And, in fact, so important is Africa to the US now, especially this region of Africa, which also contains, by the way, Sudan -- you know, there was a big long civil war, brutal civil war, in southern Sudan. There’s another brutal civil war in Darfur in Sudan. Ethiopia itself is a dictatorship. It lost the election last year, but by true force continued to assume power, Meles Zenawi, with the help of the US. The US has very close ties; it’s training the military in Ethiopia. So the US in now going to have a new army command, like CENTCOM, for Africa. There’s never been a US command specifically for Africa, but there’s going to be one now, and it is going to be in the Horn of Africa.
This is a very turbulent region. And the best way to look at this region is to imagine for a second that this very narrow Red Sea doesn’t exist, and then you see that Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, all these countries are just a few miles from Saudi Arabia and Yemen and Iraq. And so, this region is very much a part of the Middle East, has centuries of trade, and also with India and the countries over there. It's a crossroads. And the US wants to make sure it dominates it fully, and it wanted a client regime in Somalia. And that's what it has managed to do, although I’m sure it's going to be temporary. There is going to be a lot of fighting against this regime.
I mean, the issue here, I think, is this, that anything that has the word “Islam” in it is seen to be an enemy. That seems to be justification enough for them. “Oh, they’re going after the Islamists.” I mean, the reality is that these, what they call Islamists are just Muslims who are pretty traditional. Somalis should be allowed to live as they wish to. I mean, if we want to ban cinemas, that’s our right. If they don’t support it, then they going to start an invasion to say, “Oh, we don’t want such people in power there.” If the Somalis don’t want them in power, that is fine. Let the Somalis work it out for them. But this is madness.
It is in violation also of explicit UN resolutions that the UN itself supported and passed. For example, the new UN resolution that the UN wanted said no troops from neighboring countries should go into Somalia, in case there is a peacekeeping force from the region. And yet, Ethiopia invaded.