Somalia: One Year after TPLF Invasion - Part IV

The second half of the year 2006 was a time when certain powers, nervous about the new political developments in Somalia aimed at national reconstitution and unity, were gearing up to squash these developments before they had a chance to take root. It is to be recalled that the Government of Eritrea, in the interest of the Somali people and regional stability, had repeatedly cautioned the international community not to take any measures that could have grave consequences on the peace and stability of Somalia.

The Eritrean government had also called for the international community's role to be limited to giving relevant encouragement to the Somalis while they settle their differences on their own. However, the ignoble concerns of world powers had no room for such constructive problem-solving methods.

While fully aware that the solution to the Somali problem could only come from internal political process, the US Administration decided to launch a military intervention by recruiting regional forces so as to disrupt the promising developments in that country, either because they did not come from the warlords making up the interim government or simply because the evelopments did not sit well with the Administration. Consequently, the TPLF regime was the primary agent selected for this endeavor.

Clinging to power by cheating the people's choice, the TPLF regime was desperate for any external distraction that would deflect the people's attention from their domestic affairs, and hence was more than ready to slip into the role assigned to it by Washington. The new developments in Somalia came as a blessing in disguise for the clique with the help of which it could not only find refuge from the Ethiopian people's question, but also prove its loyalty to its masters. Unfortunately for the TPLF, wars do not prolong life—they can only shorten it.

Selected for the role of mercenary due to the above reasons, the TPLF regime did not think twice about invading a sovereign neighboring nation under the pretext of protecting the unpopular interim government, which had by then been limited to Baidoa only. Shortly before the invasion, the clique's leader had declared that: “so long as the Somalis do not trespass over the Ethiopian border, we have no reason to interfere in that country. These new developments have not caused us any undue concern and, as long as they do not undermine our sovereignty, we will not undermine theirs.”

Yet, after receiving different instructions from their masters, this leader backed out on his word and was forced to admit that they “have sent not more than a few hundred soldiers into Somalia so that the interim government could protect itself.” After the necessary preparations were made for the invasion, the clique declared war on Somalia through its superfluous parliament. In a briefing he gave shortly after this declaration, the Prime Minister of the clique had boasted that the war will only take a week. However, the war in Somalia did not finish in a week.

It is in recent memory that the clique's leader had also told the said parliament that the Ethiopian troops will accomplish their mission and withdraw from Somalia in a matter of weeks.
Yet, the TPLF regime was unable to accomplish its objectives as the weeks turned into months and now into a full year. Just as the Eritrean government had predicted before hand, the situation in Somalia has become a second Iraq to the TPLF and its masters.

Now, after it has become clear to all that the war in Somalia has no end, the US Administration, sthe UN and the international community, as a whole, are being forced to admit that their approach towards the Somali issue was indeed wrong. They have even come to realize that the only solution to the problem is a political process that ensures the participation of all the forces in that country, just as the Eritrean government had stressed. As to the ever deceitful TPLF regime, it has been reduced to a level where it has lost any credibility as a government or a political force.

The fact that the regime was selected as an agent in the first place was because its significance, as a government, was minimal; because no self-respecting government that stands for the interest of its people could ever be willing to gamble with the lives of its own people in order to serve the interests of others.

Source: Biddho.com