Where is America’s
Foreign Policy heading to?
Ever since I was a little boy with a discernable memory, and during the
“Peace Corps” era, the United
States, popularly known as simply “America”, was seen by many people
as the land of democracy, freedom and tolerance. It is phrases
like: everyone is “assumed innocent until proven guilty”,
every US citizen has a “right to life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness” and the land of the “American
dream” that were some of the hallmarks that defined “America”
to its exemplary dedication to justice and fairness for all under
the law. In other words, many people and organizations alike
always found some solace in believing that sympathetic USA
would, at least, understand their plight and come to their humanitarian
aid. Some of us went even further by trying to justify some
of the otherwise erroneous doctrines our adopted country has been
following when it comes to foreign policy. Sometimes I wonder
if we really have a foreign policy, sound or not. Do we simply
drift into the abyss to meet the requirement of the day or to
satisfy the desires of whoever might be at helm without taking
into account the real and/or perceived long term interests of
the United States?
It is mind-boggling, to say the least, to find a super power endowed with
plenty of material and human resources that are the envy of the
world, with superb technical know-how and an overwhelming military
might to stray aside seemingly with no sense of purpose. Its
driving forces appear to be hearsays and innuendos whose informants
seem to be, at best, of dubious character. It is especially
disheartening for many of us who have made it our adopted country.
That is sad for Americans and even sadder for those people,
organizations and/or governments that look at the United States as a beacon of hope
worth living and dying for.
While there are many follies in which the United States may have dived
into for all the wrong reasons in the past half century, and in
my attempt not to bore the reader with probably known facts, suffice
it to mention the recent manifestation of apparently misguided
foreign policy that does not seem to make any sense.
- One such blunder was
the ill conceived US backing of the Ethiopian dictator, Mr.
Meles Zenawi and his EPRDF party when the Ethiopian opposition
groups, according to many international observers, had won hands
down at the ballot boxes of the so called “Contested”
2005 election in Ethiopia. Sadly, our State
Department officials have, in their infinite wisdom, elected
not only to bless the reportedly doctored up election results,
but, our tax payers’ money has been flowing incessantly
to prop up such a despotic leader of a rotting regime.
Interestingly, back in 1995, when hundreds of innocent and unarmed
Ethiopian students were murdered at the hands of the minority-led
Ethiopian regime, some US
officials have been reported as justifying such hideous crimes
as being the lack of training of crowd control by the Ethiopian
Security forces! Sadly those same but presumably now “trained”
Ethiopian troops mowed down almost 200 more university students
in cold blood in the latest elections that were held in Ethiopia. This election I might
add was hoped to usher in a new era with exemplary balloting
discipline and much enthusiasm by the Ethiopian masses.
Yet, the US response was, at best, very measured, and
yes, the so called economic aid kept on coming in the direction
of the self styled “US
staunch ally against terrorism” whatever that term means
these days.
- Another pathetic mistake
by our foreign policy makers is none other than the fiasco in
which the US
finds itself defending the indefensible. The Eritrea Ethiopia
Boundary Commission (EEBC) was formed to provide a legal venue
by which the so called “Border war” of 1998-2000
would be put to rest. The EEBC handed out its “Final and
binding” verdict to both Eritrea and Ethiopia on April 13th,
2002. On that landmark decision, the EEBC issued a delimited
map regarding the boundary between the two countries with a
schedule of implementing the demarcation on the ground.
Mind you, this 2000 Algiers Agreement between the warring parties
was witnessed and signed by the United States,
among other nations, and by the UN as the automatic guarantor
of the deal. For some long time observers of the Ethiopian
regime’s voracious appetite for cheating, double talking
and outright lying, it is not surprising for the rogue regime
to want to talk things over on issues that were legally sealed.
What is puzzling and certainly disappointing is however that
Washington
would find the Ethiopian regime one of its bed mates!
There is no excuse whatsoever by which Washington
planners could convince us that they are doing this for the
sake of fairness or even for some unspecified US
national interest. They know it isn’t so.
When it is known that “Injustice anywhere is a threat
to justice everywhere”, going against the internationally
decided “Border” ruling and working against Eritrea,
a country with hard working people and with a proven record
of fighting against terrorism since its inception as a sovereign
nation simply does not hold water in any unbiased and clearly
thinking mind.
- Yet another miscalculation
by the US
is the 2006 Christmas Eve overt invasion of Somalia
by the Ethiopian forces and the concurrent and subsequent US
blessing and participation. That invasion is clearly a
war of aggression directed against the Somali people that could
not and should not bode well with any peace loving and tax paying
American citizen let alone the citizens of the rest of the world.
To go after known terrorists is one thing and, by all means,
one that must be supported by any peace loving citizen.
But, to go after some “terrorists’ where there were
none and solely based on information that some self serving
group may have provided is nothing short of reckless behavior,
unbecoming of a country which championed the cause of the Greek-originated
word of democracy. How can the US
stoop so low to identify itself, from all people, with the likes
of Meles Zenawi? Good grief, what is next?
- Speaking about Somalia and Eritrea,
can somebody please ask the State Department as to what happened
to the “2,000 Eritrean troops” who were reported
ready to fight in Somalia
by some shadowy group, the Somali Monitoring Group, whose composition
and intentions were not made public? I know the Eritreans
do some pretty cunning tricks, but disappearing in thin air
is not one of them. That goes to show how any information
is as good as the one who is providing it. Oops! That
information must have been given by none other than the street
smart Meles Zenawi. The problem is that Mr. Meles Zenawi
and his group in Addis Ababa apparently believe, if lies are
told over and over (and sometimes to be replaced yet by another
lie), the world might, just might, take it as truth after it
got tired of hearing it for the umpteenth time. Nice try
Mr. Meles, but it does not work! As to the United
States misguided policy, though, it is
time that some common sense and sane mind prevail and the policy
needs to reflect reality and it must change for the sake of
fairness and for the interest of the United
States to be met. The
US
needs to work in partnership with like minded nations. Eritrea comes in mind!
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