Voices without Votes » Somalia

Bush Administration to blame for Somalia's troubles

Aggregated from: JOTMAN — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:56:00 +0000

The US may be largely to blame for Somalia plight, but you wouldn't know that unless you read the entire NY Times article, blogs Rick at Ten Percent. The lede of the article asks why lots of foreign aid money isn't fixing Somalia's problems (as if that's the main question Americans should be asking about the origins of Somalia's present-day difficulties).

Buried in the story is an interesting nugget of information:

By the early 2000s, several of those local courts began to gain strength, and in 2006 they united under an Islamist banner to fight warlords being paid by the Central Intelligence Agency. The Islamic courts won and disarmed and pacified much of south-central Somalia, following their own version of the building block approach. But the United States and Ethiopia considered the Islamic courts a terrorist threat, so the United States helped Ethiopia invade Somalia.

Gwyn Dyer reported on the consequences of the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia back in December 2007. See this post for more background on this "unseen Bush catastrophe."

I happened to have a long talk with a Somali the other day. It was his view Somali warlords just had to say, “hey CIA, we’re fighting Al Qaeda” and they got all the support they needed. The mujaheddin, Iraq's Chalabi, Georgia's Mikheil Saakashvili — all have had their “story.” In South Vietnam it was “democratic” leader Diệm. The Americans continue talking themselves into these wacky narratives, lionizing this or that thug, and then wonder why things don’t turn out better. Just listen to all this bullish talk coming from American leaders about the Georgian president today. These people don't even try to learn from their own mistakes do they? That’s the truly remarkable thing about them. They would rather forget; just bury the lede.*

That's why Obama's remarks about the nature of "evil" were so refreshing to hear.

Massive Obama victory in Democrats Abroad primary

Aggregated from: The World Wants Obama — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 14:13:00 +0000

22,755 Americans living abroad cast votes in the Democrats Abroad primaries. The map below demonstrates that Americans living in most countries favoured Obama. Although The World Wants Obama is most interested in the views of non-Americans, these results reinforce the evidence we've gathered of Senator Obama's international appeal - Americans abroad see the impact of US foreign policies and hear the perspectives and concerns of the people in the nations where they live, and the clear result of the primary is that these internationally-attuned Americans believe Obama would make the best President. Although the Democrats Abroad primary only officially counts for 4.5 delegate votes at the Democrat convention, its significant far outweighs that.

Clinton had a curiously strong showing in the Dominican Republican (606 out of 671 votes) and another good run in the Philippines (79 of 143) and Israel (190 of 354). Elsewhere she won a majority in 15 other nations or territories (none had more than 11 votes total): Kuwait, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Dominica, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Malta, New Caledonia, Reunion, Somalia, Turkmenistan, and Yemen. There were ties in 10 more countries, and Obama won the rest - 132 countries! Overall Obama gained 65.6% of the vote compared to 32.7% for Clinton and the balance to other candidates. As a result Obama was awarded 3 delegate votes, compared to 1.5 for Clinton. A further 2.5 votes will be determined at the Democrats Abroad Global Convention in Vancouver in April. In addition, Democrats Abroad holds 4 superdelegate votes.
(map from Openleft.com)

No Terrorist Here, Just 3 Women and 3 Children.

Aggregated from: Mideast Youth - Thinking Ahead » USA — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:41:54 +0000

A U.S. airstrike this morning targeting a “known al-Qaeda terrorist” in Somalia destroys two houses, approximately the size of my bedroom, killing 3 women, 3 children and no terrorists. Yes in Somalia, which I believe has to its credit, one working escalator and 3 color T.V.’s

Picture this, you’re a poor Somalian man living in a house no more glamorous than a sand castle, you have no job besides what you can invent from your imagination and you live in one of the poorest countries on earth. Your country lacks infrastructure and the most basic human resources, you have nothing in terms of wealth and your countries number one export is dust. If your country fell into the ocean tomorrow it would barely make the front page of any newspaper including the Mogadishu Tribune. Then suddenly, one Monday morning you’re going through your usual daily routines (trying to find something on the ground that no one wants that might be edible if boiled) and suddenly BOOM! Your sand castle of a house has been blown off the face of the earth and with it, your wife, kids and members of your extended family. Was it an act of God, a natural disaster, civil war, leaking gas? Yea right, you don’t even have gas pipes. No, instead you and your sand castle have been targeted by the only remaining super power on earth, essentially by the leader of the free world. You’re not sure whether to be upset or honored.

You have nothing left, which is what you thought you had before this catastrophe occurred, you’ve been forced to exchange your few blessings in life for torment that will agonize you till your last breath. What do you do now? Go to Iraq and fight those who have taken everything from you….obviously. You have nothing left to live for except revenge and you’ll happily give your life just attempting to even the score even though you cant no matter what you do.

And thats how you recruit a terrorist.

Somalia/USA: Somali elders for Obama

Aggregated from: Global Voices Online » U.S.A. — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:05:14 +0000

Royale Somali blogs about Somali elders supporting Obama in Ohio: “I heard that a lot of Somali elders in Ohio who are also American citizens would be going to caucus for Obama , dressed like that notorious photo. Ohio has a large Somali community around 20 Thousand.”