Thread by @althecat

This piece from AlMariam just made my day :) almariam.com/2021/08/14/tpl…

The comparison today between #Ethiopia and Afghanistan could not be more stark.

There is a lesson in this terrible being for the 50 year long period of US adventures in #Afghanistan.

AlMariam expresses this beautifully in these three passages.

Someone told me that Feltman’s visit is just for show, a fool’s errand, “he just has to show up, they said. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

His best approach to achieve peaceful settlement at this 13th hour would be to go directly to Addis and talk to @AbiyAhmedAli.

He should offer American assistance to remove TPLF leadership, then ask for Ethiopia’s terms to agree to the TPLF surrendering with their lives.

The Ethiopian PM is afterall a peacemaker, and for the US it would be honourable to at least try to save the lives of their loyal but repulsive puppet proxy counter-terrorism partners of the last 30 years.

He should then go to Mekelle, a decent bodyguard force would be advised, and inform the TPLF that the game is over for them, and present @AbiyAhmedAli’s terms.

And then, if the TPLF agree to surrender on the terms agreed with @AbiyAhmedAli in advance they get to live.

If not the United States must then honour it’s word and - if Ethiopia is willing to allow them to do so - help clean up their own mess.

American foreign policy needs to be wholly remade. For @POTUS @joebiden this is the perfect opportunity. Yes America failed and arguably betrayed Afghanistan, but it can show in the midst of its humiliation, that it has learned its lesson.

As we begin to fight the greatest threat humanity has ever faced, Climate Change, the world needs a new America, a different State Dept, that can rally the nations of the world with something other than fear.

We are all sick of that America. And Ethiopians much more than most.