BY ABEBE ABATE (Captain)
America has a lot of war material in mothballs with a view to employing at a conflict somewhere in the world at times the arsenal is refurbished and put into service, a service to advance American interests worldwide.
Likewise, America has in “mothballs’’ countless bureaucrats that had served under previous democratic or republican administrations not by holding elective office but servicing in the secretariat of those elected doing one of many menial tasks.
When by chance those ancient politicians win elections again and assume office, those in mothballs are given new life and elevated to important national offices not because they are the best qualified but because of their loyalty to the elected.
Loyalty to their bosses suffices no matter how weak or inexperienced they may be on matters of national concern. Particularly regarding foreign affairs on which they get on the job training by practicing it, in particular, on African countries.
After going through a confirmation process in the US senate the resurrected mothballs consider themselves so qualified and competent, they start by trying to use their new offices and the powers that go with it to dictate what other countries and governments, especially in Africa, should do to be at the beck and call of America no matter what the negative consequences that’d have for the countries concerned.
Who cares, these are black and by America’s definition backward anyway. They can be used as guinea pigs in laboratories. A living example of that is the current Secretary of State and the mentors he has around him who are no better suited for office than he is. Never mind, African countries are waiting for these their saviors, the white knights on white chargers, willing to serve as a training ground for on hands experience or on the job training.
It’s true that in politics there’re no permanent friends or enemies. That being said, the path that America has chosen in its relations with Ethiopia recently is, to put it mildly, a gamble of the worst kind: ignorant, dictatorial, racist and colonial reminiscent of the dislikable American, cowboy diplomacy of year’s gone bye.
America is good at dividing: look at North/ South Korea, North/South Vietnam and until the Germans changed it, East/West Germany etc.
America is also unparalleled in destroying. Iraq the most advanced country in the Arab world was shredded to pieces by America and Britain under the Bush and Blair administrations on completely fabricated grounds of possession of nuclear weapons against the advice of the UN/ IAEA who knew and presented the truth and the facts all of which were completely ignored because it didn’t suit America’s sinister objectives.
America’s destruction of Iraq as a country and the thousands of its innocent citizens is more than adequate to bring Bush and Blair to justice for genocide and international criminal acts. And now Afghanistan, poor America can’t think let alone see further than tip of its ‘’nose’’ so to say. It sneaks out after getting thousands of GIs and beyond count Afghans killed. It left setting the poor Afghans at each other’s throats. A shameful, disgusting and despicable spectacle of what America really is becoming. America has been and is a participant wherever there’s been or there’s armed conflict in the world. Often, it has instigated the conflict.
Ethiopia has recently been subjected to immense but futile American pressure on how to handle its internal affairs: imperial colonial dictates to negotiate with terrorists, where to station the nation’s armed forces and militias, to postpone national elections until America resurrects from the grave the now defunct TPLF which during its close to thirty years in power was beholden but to American interests.
And according to Herman Cohen once a staunch TPLF supporter ‘’these very rebels once known as TPLF controlled all of Ethiopia from 1991 to 2018 as a corrupt authoritarian regime’’. The world knows as does the American government, that 40 billion Dollar was whisked out of Ethiopia during TPLF rule. This figure comes from international financial institutions. Where’s this money now? It’s being used to buy members of congress, government officials, EU representatives, the international media etc. by the TPLF and its network in America and elsewhere.
A former president attempted to force Ethiopia to sign an American prepared agreement on our Abay dam that was designed to favor his ‘‘favorite dictator’’ (just as today’s US has its favorite terrorists and traitors: the TPLF). When he failed to force Ethiopia to succumb to American dictates, he suggested that his favorite dictator ‘’could bomb’’ the dam under construction and cancelled all American aid and assistance.
How many realize that Ethiopia was a nation when many western countries, let alone America, didn’t even exist as a hamlet? We still are a nation and will continue to be no matter what! Both our enemies and genuine friends can rest assured.
During the Carter administration America attempted but failed miserably in its efforts to sacrifice Ethiopia’s territorial integrity, national honor by trying to ensure that Somalia carved a large part of eastern Ethiopia and absorbed it into a Greater Somalia.
At the time, the Soviet Union had taken a foothold in and armed Somalia to the teeth knowing full well that it had the intention to enlarge itself at the expense of neighboring countries, Ethiopia and Kenya, which at the time were very close to and friendly with the west.
Given that there were war clouds on the horizon Ethiopia tried to prepare itself for the oncoming onslaught by bolstering its armed forces. One of the measures included the purchase from the US of additional aircraft for the Ethiopian Air Force. The Ethiopian government went through the normal procedures to acquire a number of F5 aircraft and armament from our only source, the US, which till then had equipped us with these fighter planes through its Military Assistance Program.
To the extent that when crunch time came with the Ethiopian ground forces in the east asking and eventually pleading for air support, the Air Force was in no position to respond. America had deliberately withheld the aircraft and ammunition already paid for: treason of the highest degree.
Ethiopia put its trust in an America that betrayed it and was ready to sacrifice Ethiopian territory, dignity, history and honor all in an attempt to make us lose to Somalia which America then intended to lure out of the claws of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately for America and its gamble Ethiopia triumphed beyond expectations.
Thank God Ethiopia has reliable friends elsewhere who came to our rescue in the nick of time and flooded us with ammunition and other air war fare material we needed that we could use in spite of America’s stab in the back and betrayal.
The F5s then at hand and in use so few in number, plus other older planes flew sorties over and over again till victory and reason and Ethiopia once again prevailed. It did then, it’s doing so now. America’s betrayal of friends is nothing new…the Shah of Iran, NATO, two incidents among many more come to mind.
Yes, years ago under its Point IV program the US sent experts from its Bureau of Reclamation to help survey the Abay. Ethiopia’s intention then, as now, was to build a hydroelectric dam. When the survey was completed our Emperor, then one of America’s staunchest allies, sought help in the form of a loan from the World Bank etc. but was turned down cold many times. This’s perplexing: how come the survey was done if the US which knew full well Ethiopia’s objective wasn’t going to extend help at the end. Was it simply to pay its citizens engaged in the survey, after all President Kennedy confirmed that 85 percent of all US aid comes right back to the US? Poor, childish, immature and unreliable, America that never learns.
I recall that ,on being told the US wasn’t going to help Ethiopia get a loan from the World Bank to build the Abay dam, the Emperor lamented ‘’Countries we trusted as friends will not help us, but let the survey’s findings be kept for the next generation to implement”! That’s exactly what’s happening right now.
Where was America ‘’our friend ‘’when an apartheid constitution that has caused war and displacement was imposed on the country by the TPLF ….did it utter a single word? After all the TPLF was ushered to power in Ethiopia by none other than the then American assistant secretary for Africa affairs Herman Cohen, Nothing of the kind because apartheid suits US as demonstrated by its strong support thereof even in the dying moments of whites only brutal apartheid rule in South Africa !
Come to think of it: what is happening in America these days with the treatment that’s being meted out to Americans of African, Asian and Latin origin is nothing short of apartheid via the back door.
The TPLF that America is trying to resurrect from the grave these days is responsible for millions of dead/displaced/maimed in Ethiopia. A recent official report by ’America’s intelligence and security services confirmed that the greatest threat to its security was surging white supremacy in the country. This was evident all along. What a disgusting spectacle and shame seeing the recent invasion of the US Capitol! An America that lectures, that pontificates, that falsely prides itself in its democratic institutions was brought to its knees by a single act when supporters of a President in power stormed the US Congress and threatened the lives of the then Vice President and members of Congress engaged in doing their jobs.
America knows full well that economic independence is a sine quoi non for a country’s political and territorial independence. The America of today doesn’t want Ethiopia or any African country to free itself from western handouts and be economically Independent. That would be a big loss to America. Every time a simple come from nowhere bureaucrat in America or the E.U. has its opinion made for him by lobbyists that alone is ground enough to withhold aid or assistance. That way they want to bend us to be subservient to their whims and idiosyncrasies in exchange for pennies they throw us.
I recall the recent statement by a New York based lobbyist firm that it had delivered what it was hired to do: the US Congress had passed a resolution against Ethiopia…American law makers had sold their votes to lobbyists in return for…..it can’t get cheaper than that !
Why does America build a wall just like the East Germans did in Berlin? Why does it, on some flimsy pretext, restrict visas for non-Caucasians from around the world? Such acts demonstrate beyond any doubt that hard core racist America is rearing its head and is a danger for all countries particularly African nations. God save us all from the current America.
Did America realize that in helping Somalia carve a large part of Ethiopia to enlarge its territory it was creating a situation that would’ve repercussions all over the African continent?
Does America realize that its dictates for each region of Ethiopia to abide within its borders is interference in Ethiopia’s internal affairs?
Does America know how the new borders were redrawn to suit a greater Tigray at the expense of a diminished Ethiopia and that the previous inhabitants of those areas were driven out by the brutal use of force? Anyway who made America the enforcer of constitutions worldwide? How about enforcing similar measures in Russia, China?
Someone who knows America thoroughly well said in 2019 “In its 242 years of existence America has been at peace for only 16 years….this makes it the most warlike nation in the history of the world…!” This quote is attributed to none other than former President Jimmy Carter.
Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The Ethiopian Herald
The Ethiopian Herald August 28/2021
