Al-Quds al-‘Arabi (in Arabic) – Editorial: “Somalia: A Costly Ethiopian Victory”

[Translated by BBC Monitoring] Somalia is witnessing at present an armed Ethiopian invasion that has the support of the United States and European countries. Most of the African and Arab countries are taking the stand of the spectator toward the thousands of Somali martyrs and victims defending their country, sovereignty, and territorial integrity as a result of this invasion.

Ethiopian President Meles Zenawi stood like a peacock yesterday to announce victory against the Islamic Courts forces, a victory that might cost him too much in future because major countries like his that have the most modern American weapons and aircraft can strike the rebels and insurgents’ positions and inflict heavy losses on them but cannot triumph over them.  He has in the Eritrean people the best example. How many times did Ethiopia’s senior leaders like Mengistu Haile Miriam announce victory over the Eritrean rebels and what was the final outcome of the Ethiopian occupation but the humiliating defeat and Eritrean victory!

The Islamic Courts’ forces are a group of noble believers who wanted to put an end to the bloody anarchy perpetuated by the warlords and leaders of the militias and restore stability and unity to this torn, poor, and destitute country.  Their march in this honorable direction had the support of the overwhelming majority of Somalis which enabled them to expel the outlaws and mafia gangs, liberate most of the Somali cities from their hegemony and crimes, and reunite the country behind a nationalist, clean, and fair Islamic regime.

The United States which ripped Somalia’s unity apart, toppled its government, undermined its stability, and starved its people did not like this achievement and acted to bring it down and to keep Somalia a breeding ground for anarchy, militias, and warlords by instructing President Zenawi to act militarily, fight the Islamists, and bring down their government.  And he did and is doing so.

The United States intervened and changed the regime in Iraq, backed its agents with money and weapons, and sent more than 200,000 of its soldiers to ensure its plan’s success and yet was unable to provide security for 3 square km of Baghdad city called the Green Zone. Will Zenawi succeed in Somali where his masters the Americans have failed in Iraq?

Ethiopia is going to pay a heavy price for this intervention from its internal security and territorial integrity and the same thing can be said about the United States that is backing this intervention. Somalia will become chaotic and a breeding ground for the Islamic groups, both local and external ones, but this time with support from the Somali people who will act in the same way as the Afghan and Iraqi peoples did when they turned against the United States and the governments it wanted to install through a debased democratic process and will not accept in Mogadishu a government imposed by Ethiopia and the United States by force of arms.

Ethiopia did not enjoy stability until after it stopped its intervention in Eritrea and accepted the Eritrean people’s right to stability. Its leadership is now repeating the same mistake and intervening in Somalia in a crude way.  It is an intervention that will bring it back to square one of tension and probably make it lose the Ogaden region to say nothing of inciting millions of Ethiopian Muslims against the ruling regime in Addis Ababa.

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