It also seems very poorly timed vis a vis the peace efforts underway in neighbouring Ethiopia, the war & peace effort in which all of these countries were either directly or indirectly involved in to different degrees.
https://twitter.com/althecat/status/1614608671970844679
Excepting Botswana which seems a to be an outlier.
It would be far better if the US pursued its strategic objectives in the HoA primarily using soft power rather than military exercises.
How does this exercise relate to #ATMIS
I have a lot of questions and concerns about the implications of a renewed US military posture in HOA.
How does this exercise relate to #ATMIS
I have a lot of questions and concerns about the implications of a renewed US military posture in HOA.
Europe and China are also heavily invested in this area. The context of this exercise legislatively is a recent U.S. DoD appropriation Act which was passed on 15th December.
With a specific focus on #Somaliland. Here is the relevant part of the text related to that component.
With a specific focus on #Somaliland. Here is the relevant part of the text related to that component.
It continues….
To me this legislation looks a lot like signalling a very clear intention by the US to effectively annex Somaliland.
Diplomatically speaking, to do so without the explicit consent of affected nations in the region would be, by definition, destabilising.
Diplomatically speaking, to do so without the explicit consent of affected nations in the region would be, by definition, destabilising.
Given the history of this area and US military engagement, the most well component of which is the Blackhawk Down debacle in Mogadishu (which now once again has a US military presence) - the clearly stated US intentions here deserve close attention.
“The most well known component of..”
The Black Hawk down fiasco in 1993 (Clinton Presidency) - two years after the TPLF came to power in Ethiopia- was made into a movie in 2002 by Ridley Scott >> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Haw…
The Black Hawk down fiasco in 1993 (Clinton Presidency) - two years after the TPLF came to power in Ethiopia- was made into a movie in 2002 by Ridley Scott >> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Haw…
The film was released in the aftermath of 9-11 in the lead up to the Godforsaken and illegal war in Iraq justified by lies about the presence of WMDs in Iraq.
The film received extensive support from the DoD in its making, a program which has continued ever since.
The film received extensive support from the DoD in its making, a program which has continued ever since.
Four years after the film the then US proxy TPLF govt invaded Somalia. This three year war was a key moment in the expansion of the US’s Global War on Terror #GWOT which began after 9-11 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_So…
The « gung-ho » nature of the text in the freshly minted Defence Legislation (see above) just passed by Congress, and the speed with which this has become a multi-nation live fire exercise, before the peace in neighbouring Ethiopia has been realised seems reckless.
/ends
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