BY ALMARIAM
PART TWO
As Feltman slithers back to Ethiopia, he and his bosses should be aware of certain immutable truths. Ten TRUTHS Jeffrey Feltman must understand before he goes to Ethiopia!
TRUTH #1. The people of Ethiopia have lost respect and trust in the Biden administration which they believe to be a brazen neocolonial power pushing its hegemonic power in complete and depraved indifference to the dignity of the Ethiopian people and the sovereignty of Ethiopia. The people of Ethiopia in the country and in the diaspora are absolutely convinced the Biden Administration is hell bent on regime change in Ethiopia and reimpose upon them their TPLF puppet. That ain’t going to happen. Period!
TRUTH #2. The Biden administration must openly and publicly come to terms with the fact that the TPLF is solely and singularly responsible for the current conflict and war in Tigray region. Over the past 9 months, the Biden administration has not issued a word of condemnation against the TPLF for its barbaric acts of aggression against the Ethiopian Northern Command and myriad massacres committed by TPLF forces. Even in the face of fully documented cases of child soldier deployment, a war crime, by the TPLF, the administration has remained silent.
TRUTH #3. The Biden administration, specifically the key decision makers including Susan Rice, Antony Blinken, Samantha Power, Jeffrey Feltman and others simply do not understand Ethiopian history, the Ethiopian character or Ethiopian defiance/determination. They need to ask themselves one simple question: How did Ethiopia, a black African nation, manage to keep its independence from white European colonialism and any other foreign domination for thousands of years? White supremacy does not work on Ethiopians. Period!
TRUTH #4. The Ethiopian people and Government find the Biden administration’s insistence on “dialogue” and “negotiation” with the TPLF terrorists not only preposterously ridiculous but also deeply disrespectful and offensive. Biden’s policy makers should learn from their own history. Did Abraham Lincoln negotiate with the confederate rebels that bombarded Fort Sumter which proved to be the flashpoint for the American Civil War? No, he mobilized 75,000-man militia to suppress the confederate rebels.
Did President George Bush dialogue or negotiate with the leaders of Al Qaeda and Taliban after the 9/11? No, Bush unleashed a land and air war on Afghanistan which lasted 20 years and cost more than 2 trillion USD and 240,000 lives. Today, the U.S. is scurrying to get out of Afghanistan as the Taliban take a cake walk into the capital Kabul.
The Biden administration is pressuring the Ethiopian Government to negotiate with the equivalent of Al Qaeda, Taliban, Al Shabab and Boko Haram rolled into one. It ain’t happening. Period!
But here is a fact all Ethiopians shall keep uppermost in their minds as the Biden administration pressures for negotiations with the TPLF.
The last time the U.S. insisted a legitimate government negotiate with a terrorist group, that terrorist group used the negotiation process to buy time, organize and strengthen itself and launch a final deadly attack and take over power by sheer military force. That is exactly what happened in Afghanistan.
The Ethiopian Government will not repeat the mistakes the Afghan Government by playing a game of negotiations with the TPLF. It will negotiate with the TPLF in the battlefield in the only language the TPLF understands.
TRUTH #5. The Biden administration must stop its practice of false equivalency between the Ethiopian Government and a terrorist group, the TPLF. The Ethiopian Government and the terrorist TPLF are not on the same level legally or politically. The Ethiopian Government cannot negotiate with a group designated by the Ethiopian Parliament “terrorist” as a matter of law. Period! The Biden’s administration’s nauseating insistence on negotiations and dialogue with the TPLF shows U.S. disingenuousness or outright contempt for Ethiopian sovereignty.
TRUTH # 6: The Biden administration has had nothing but criticism and condemnation for the Ethiopian Government over the past 10 months. The administration has shown no acknowledgement of all the positive things the Ethiopian Government has done to deescalate the conflict and ensure the humanitarian needs of the people of Tigray are met in the shortest possible time. When the Ethiopian Government provided full humanitarian access, the administration demanded “full humanitarian access” and uninspected passage of relief aid to supply weapons to the TPLF. There was no acknowledgment that the Ethiopian Government provided 70 percent of the relief aid to Tigray or is currently undertaking human rights investigations jointly with the UNHCR. No acknowledgement when the Government declared a unilateral ceasefire.
TRUTH # 7: The Biden administration must stop treating Ethiopia as if it is its colony. The imperial attitude of ordering and commanding the Ethiopian Government to negotiate with the TPLF smacks of the old colonial order. In 1991, then Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Herman Cohen staged a “dialogue” and “negotiations” for the TPLF in London and facilitated their swift seizure of power. Susan Rice, Blinken, etc. cannot pull off a repeat of 1991 in 2021. Period!
TRUTH # 8: It is in the Biden administration’s hand to change the course of worsening relations between the U.S. and Ethiopia. The two countries have had bilateral relations as sovereign partners for well over a century. In 1977, a major breach in bilateral relations occurred when the Carter administration failed to deliver military hardware purchased by Ethiopia to fend of Somali aggression. That transformed the geopolitical situation and scaling down of U.S. presence in Ethiopia, close long-standing structures like the United States Information Service (USIS), the Military Advisory and Assistant Group, (MAAG), the Peace Corps and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The threat of imposition of Global Magnitsky sanctions, removal of Ethiopia as a beneficiary of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, blocking Ethiopia from international financial institutions, etc. will merely escalate and worsen the situation.
TRUTH # 9: The Biden administration has awakened a sleeping giant in the consciences of all Ethiopians. It is called “Ethiopiawinet” (Ethiopianity or Ethiopian-ness) or Ethiopian nationalism. They see U.S. interference in the internal affairs of Ethiopia as an existential threat. They see their fight against the TPLF as a fight for the preservation of the territorial integrity and political sovereignty of their country. They see negotiation with the TPLF not only as a return to the last 25 years of TPLF oppression, corruption and abuse of power but also as an affront to their humanity, dignity, sovereignty and Ethiopianity. It is not in the national interest of Ethiopians to negotiate with terrorists. Negotiating with the TPLF for the Ethiopian people simply stated is negotiating for the total dismemberment and destruction of the Ethiopian nation. That ain’t gonna happen. Period!
TRUTH # 10: ETHIOPIANS UNITED WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED!
The Biden administration should understand that Ethiopians united defeated the mighty Italian army in 1896 fighting with bows, arrows, swords and muskets. They defeated the mighty Italian army against in 1941 after a five-year occupation. The administration should not overestimate its powers to crush the will of the Ethiopian people nor underestimate the will of the Ethiopian people to defiantly resist regardless of how long it takes to preserve their nation.
The Biden administration should not repeat in Ethiopia the mistakes of the Nixon administration in Vietnam.
In 1969, Nixon’s National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger said “I refuse to believe that a little fourth-rate power like North Vietnam doesn’t have a breaking point” as he instructed his aides to develop a punitive military strategy that would coerce North Vietnam into negotiating on American terms.
In April 1975, the “fourth-rate power of North Vietnam” overran Saigon as the U.S. scrambled to evacuate Americans from the country.
History has repeated itself today, August 14, 2021. It is Saigon 1975 in Afghanistan today. As the Taliban sweep over Afghanistan and isolate Kabul, the capital, the U.S. is sending Marines to airlift Americans and Afghans who supported Americans out of the country.
The reprehensible and wicked Taliban won because they fought following the principle, “Afghans United Will Never be Defeated.”
The Biden administration can impose its sanctions and other punitive actions against Ethiopia and make the lives of the Ethiopian people hard and difficult. But no amount of sanctions can break the spirit of the Ethiopian people. They are used to hardship and privation.
The ball is in the Biden administration’s court
Does the administration want to change course and deal with Ethiopia fairly and in good will and good faith? Does the administration want the minds of the Ethiopian people to be indelibly imprinted as TPLF protectors and godfathers? Does the administration want to continue the good bilateral relations cultivated over the past 120 years? Or does the administration want to stay the course and bring Ethiopia to its knees and install the TPLF to power?
I hope Special Envoy Feltman will go to Ethiopia with genuine olive branches and good will to reboot Ethio-U.S. relations.
I hate to say it, but I must.
If Feltman is going to Ethiopia to deliver an ultimatum of sanctions, threats, punishments, etc., I am afraid the Ethiopians will tell him to go to HELL, HELL, HELL!
Ethiopians and only Ethiopians will determine their collective destiny, No one else. Period!
ETHIOPIANS UNITED WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED!
TPLF “Hitman” Goeth to Ethiopia again!
Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The Ethiopian Herald
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD AUGUST 18/ 2021
