Even though the terrorist TPLF group is being hammered by the Ethiopian forces on all war fronts, it has continued unleashing its carnage on unarmed civilians in the Amhara and Afar states. On the diplomatic front, the US intensified its pressure against Ethiopia worsening the situation by emboldening the terrorist TPLF group. Although the Biden administration officials continue to give the usual talking points and lip service, its actions cannot be further clear with its embassy in Addis Ababa leading the propaganda campaign.
However, many argue that the U.S. should consider Ethiopia’s military operation against the terrorist TPLF group as a just war comparing it with the Pearl Harbor incident. The U.S entered the Second World War because its navy was attacked by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor. In fact, the terrorist TPLF’s attack on the northern command of the Ethiopian Defense Forces stationed in Tigray prompted the Ethiopian government to launch a law enforcement operation against the group as the Pearl Harbor incident that bout America into the Second World War.
The Japanese launched a surprise attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. After two hours of bombing, 21 U.S. ships were sunk or damaged, 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed, and 2,403 people were killed. All of this happened while the U.S. and Japan were officially engaging in diplomatic negotiations for possible peace.
The attack occurred on a beautiful Sunday morning while the troops were ambushed unexpectedly while they were having the usual routine similar to the way it happened on November 4, 2020, in Tigray.
The surprise aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese precipitated the entry of the United States into World War II. The strike climaxed a decade of worsening relations between the United States and Japan.
The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor began just before 8 a.m. local time Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. For over an hour, in two waves, some 350 Japanese aircraft—having taken off from six aircraft carriers 230 miles north of Oahu—attacked the naval base. Japanese forces wreaked havoc on US naval vessels and US aircraft on the island’s airfield. 11start superscript, 1, end superscript in all, 2,403 Americans, including 68 civilians, died in the attack. In comparison, Japan suffered relatively light causalities—it lost only 29 aircraft and a few mini-submarines.
The American people were shocked, bewildered, surprised, and angered by the attack. On December 8, President Roosevelt addressed a joint session of Congress in the Capitol, his words broadcast on radio to the nation: “Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”
In his address, Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war against Japan, which it did that day. Three days later, Japan’s allies Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, and Congress reciprocated the same day. All previous domestic opposition to US entry into the war ceased. The United States was now immersed in a war it would conduct simultaneously in Europe and the Pacific.
The United States began involvement in the war by supplying the Allies with goods and arms. The main event that brought America into the war was the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Now that America is directly or indirectly supporting the terrorist TPLF group, many see this Washington as playing a double standard. When is the U.S. going to say the terrorist TPLF’s heinous war crime on November 4, 2020, justifies Ethiopia’s right to defend itself as the U.S did in World War II? Why is this a double standard? is the U.S morally bankrupt to condone insurgency without accountability?
In the early hours of November 4, 2020, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) attacked the Ethiopian National Defense Forces Base located in the Tigray region and attempted to rob the northern command of artillery and military equipment. The Northern command has been stationed in the Tigray region for more than two decades in service and protection of the people of Tigray from any threats.
The Ethiopian National Defense Forces, under the direction of a Command Post, was then ordered to carry out their mission to save the country and the region from spiraling into instability.
Before the attack, the terrorist TPLF had been arming and organizing irregular militias outside of the constitutionally mandated structure. The attack on the Northern Command premised on TPLF viewing the Ethiopian National Defense Forces as a foreign army rather than an army that was protecting the people of Tigray for more than twenty years. Resultantly, TPLF has chosen to wage war.
Currently, as the group intensified its attack on Amhara and Afar states, Ethiopians led by their Commander-In-Chief are destroying the terrorist group on all battlefields. In this regard, the U.S has a crucial path to choose before it is too late. One is to continue helping TPLF logistically and prolong the death and suffering of millions potentially destabilizing the Horn of Africa. The other is to make policy correction immediately and respects the sovereign state of Ethiopia and its elected government.
The choice is grave and if the latter path is not taken the United States will have a huge crisis that will be worse than Iraq, Afghanistan, and others considering the human toll the U.S. needs to accept the fact that your acceptance and support have emboldened TPLF and gas-lighted the war. Likewise need to withdraw its support to the terrorist TPLF and order their immediate disarming and condemn the insurrections and stop equating them with a democratically elected government. Side with and help the Ethiopian government and people.
On the other hand, the propaganda of international media is another challenge. The 24 hours media coverage of the situation in Ethiopia has been historical. As usual, they have been skewing events confusion by omission and deliberate misrepresentations and falsehoods. The media is singing the U.S government’s tunes in harmony on warranted blocking of the Ethiopian Prime Minister’s Facebook account, twitter’s censorship of messages favorable to Ethiopian interests are the tip of the iceberg of the assaults that we are witnessing.
These entities have continued to glamorize the terrorist group’s persona and embolden its existence. They are beating the drums cheering its movement while situations on the ground tell a different story. In conclusion to the U.S administration, the western world, the media, and aid organizations that have ulterior motives to help the terrorist TPLF, we say they need to reflect back on their actions and correct their mistakes before it is too late. Already too much blood has been shared and history will judge every one of us if we don’t change course and save lives.
BY HAILE DEMEKE
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD DECEMBER 1/2021
