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U.S. Imperialist Foreign Policy
Modern Communism continues its examination of U.S. imperialist activities around the world since the Second World War.
Somalia
Throughout the Cold War, the U.S. and the Soviet Union divided Africa into spheres of influence, with the Americans propping up one dictatorial regime after another under the guise of containing communism. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Americans began using the pretext of humanitarian concerns to justify their interference in Africa.
On December 4th, 1992, President George Bush agreed to send almost 30,000 U.S. troops to Somalia in a mission dubbed "Operation Restore Hope". According to the Bush administration, the troops were being dispatched to ensure the delivery of food and other emergency supplies to alleviate famine. Through careful maneuvering on the part of the Americans, their announced intervention came one day after the U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 794. This called for the U.N. Unified Task Force (UNITAF) to "use all necessary means to establish a secure environment for humanitarian relief in Somalia." One week later, U.S. Marines were landing on the beaches of Mogadishu.
However, contrary to the official line of the Bush administration, U.S. interests and involvement in Somalia began long before "Operation Restore Hope". Situated close to the Middle East and with its port at Berbera, Somalia was of some geopolitical importance. From 1969 to the late 1970s, the brutal regime of Siad Barre was aligned with the Soviet Union, which armed it to the teeth. However, when Ethiopia began a rapprochement with the Soviet Union in the 1970s, the U.S. turned to Barre for a strategic alliance in the region. Barre quickly abandoned his pretense of socialism and adopted a free-market economic system. Between 1980 and 1991, the U.S. poured in over $400 million worth of weapons and military assistance to prop up Barre. In exchange, the U.S. was given access to Berbera as a military base to support bombers and nuclear submarines.
In January 1991, the Barre regime was overthrown; American military aid had slowed to a trickle at the end of the Cold War and Barre suffered. A civil war broke out for control of the country. While described in the Western media repeatedly as a war between rival ethnic groups, or "clan warfare", Somalia is actually one of the most ethnically homogenous states in Africa. This civil war was the result of external divisions imposed on Somalia during the Cold War period. By 1992, the civil war had placed over one third of Somalia's population of seven million in danger of starvation. The U.S. Embassy in Mogadishu had closed in 1991 and the Americans no longer had any formal presence in Somalia. They were interested in re-establishing a regime friendly to their interests, especially after foreign policy briefings identified the potential for Somalia to embrace the kind of anti-Western Muslim fundamentalism that existed in Sudan. The humanitarian crisis caused by the civil war provided the excuse they needed.
UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali also helped provide justification for U.S. intervention. In July 1992, he presented a report to the Security Council which charged that the West was more interested in "the rich man's war" in Bosnia than the catastrophe in Somalia. Within a week after the release of his report, the Security Council had authorized deployment of 500 peacekeepers (mostly Pakistanis) to Somalia. What started out as a UN-led effort to aid non-governmental organizations on the ground distribute relief was soon hijacked by the Americans, who claimed the UN forces were insufficient and sent in U.S. aircraft directly to deliver supplies. It is interesting to note that shortly after the Americans began intervening directly in Somalia, around the fall of 1992, the situation in the country worsened dramatically. By November, according to almost all press reports, the country had fallen into anarchy.
American foreign policy briefings at the time referred consistently to the crippling drought that was affecting the entire Horn of Africa as the main cause of the starvation in Somalia. In fact, in 1991 and 1992, Somalia produced enough food to feed its entire population. But control of the country's food distribution infrastructure was in the hands of warring factions that continued to buy arms from the U.S. and its allies while Operation Restore Hope was underway.
Initially, Operation Restore Hope fulfilled the wildest dreams of the Bush administration. Photographs and images on the evening news showed U.S. Marines distributing food to thankful Somalis. Groups of schoolchildren were shown waving the U.S. flag as their mothers received aid clearly stamped with American emblems. However, the situation deteriorated rapidly. There was significant opposition to the American presence in the country, led by those who had suffered under the previous ten years of the Barre regime, which had been armed by first the Reagan and then the Bush administration. There were also charges that the distribution of food relief was being carried out to benefit certain groups fighting within the civil war. Armed groups began robbing food relief centres and distributing the aid as they saw fit. Anti-American and anti-Western demonstrations became commonplace and received international coverage.
On September 9th, 1993, U.S. helicopter gun ships and tanks opened fire on a demonstration of Somalis opposed to the American intervention. Over 100 Somali civilians were killed. This brutal act was preceded by other acts of violence against the Somali people, perpetrated not just by the Americans but other members of the U.N. forces in the country, including Canadian peacekeepers. Using looting as an excuse, the Americans and their allies had killed people found in military compounds, including children as young as thirteen.
The Somalis fought back; 15 American soldiers were captured and killed. Operation Restore Hope became a public relations nightmare, and the Clinton government pulled all U.S. forces out of the country. Soon after, the UN coalition collapsed.
To this day, American and other arms manufacturers continue to flood Somalia with guns and weapons, ensuring the continuation of the 10-year-old civil war, and further contributing to the Horn of Africa's refugee and humanitarian crisis.