Part I
What is ridiculous about last week’s resolution and voting at the UN Security Council is that it not only came as a déjà vu, but also annuls the previous investigation on alleged human rights violation conducted with the Ethiopian Human rights Commission and the pertinent UN body. As such it has the makings of an invisible heavy hand that is pulling the strings, trying to blackmail Ethiopia which is the victim of colossal human and material devastations in the hands of the TPLF fascist hordes.
To blackmail Ethiopia while it is a victim of horrendous crimes rather looks like a repeat of the infamous resolution against Ethiopia by the defunct League of Nations on the eve of the last war unleashed by the German Nazis and the Italian Fascists. This is also a miscarriage of justice at the international level.
That was the time when the TPLF was opening its offensive against the people in at least two major regions, namely Amhara and Afar. The Western powers did not say a word about hat TPLF invasion and the horrific destruction and the immense sufferings it caused on people in the invaded regions. Now that the TPLF is routed in Ethiopia’s counteroffensive and lost all its criminally occupied towns and villages, Washington is trying to soften its position on Ethiopia with the hope of returning some other day.
However, the coordinated US and Western harassment against Ethiopia is bound to continue unabated because the present softening is not the reflection of a policy change. It is rather coordinated with TPLF’s performance on the ground. There is no reason why Washington will not change to aggressive mode whenever as soon as the situation seem to change to their favor. So, Washington’s attitude is fluid and opportunistic rather than principled or honest.
As the saying has it, liars have short memories. Barely a month ago, TPLF neo-fascists claimed that they were going to storm the gates of Addis Ababa. This proved an empty bravado sooner than later. And the TPLF neo-fascists fell into a deafening silence as their bad dream of occupying the Ethiopian capital was shattered into pieces and now they are on the back foot.
All through the fanfares and threats, the Washington hawks and their media too were silent, most probably expecting the outcome of the TPLF bravado and in case the fascists entered Addis, they could give orders as to the direction their lackeys could take once they are on the saddles. In politics “a hawk, is someone who favors war or continuing to escalate an existing conflict as opposed to other solutions. War hawks are the opposite of doves.”
It is amazing how events moved so fast and laid bare the reasons behind the miscalculations of the TPLF neo-fascists and their Washington masters. Neo-fascism, or new fascism, is a new version of the old fascism best expressed in TPLF’s history of repression, extremist ideology of ethnic nationalism and hatred towards other nationalities.
Now that the federal government is in full control of the military and political situations, the Washington gentlemen have emerged from their mental caves and telling us that they are “concerned” about the TPLF’s gross human rights violations in towns were they have perpetrated their fascistic deeds.
Why did the Washington hawks keep quiet when entire regions were being reduced into ashes, innocent civilians massacred, girls and women raped, families destroyed and children left without their parents? The TPLF neo-fascists did indeed outshine the deeds of Cambodia’s Khmer rouges back in the 1970s that brutalized their country into the Stone Age. According to Wikipedia dictionary, “The Cambodian genocide was the systematic persecution and killing of Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Communist Party of Kampuchea general secretary Pol Pot. It resulted in the deaths of 1.5 to 2 million people from 1975 to 1979, nearly a quarter of Cambodia’s 1975 population.” The TPLF are committing this kind of genocide in Ethiopia right now and right under the eyes of the international community.
The Americans were silent for the simple reason that they were fully expecting that neo-fascist stooges would soon reach Addis and settle into power. Then the Washington hawks would jump on the first flight to the Ethiopian capital loaded with advisors and experts on board of their flight.
The political naiveté if not ignorance of the Washington hawks is self-evident. They don’t only understand the defiant mentality of the Ethiopian people who prefer death to suffering humiliation in the hands of foreigners. They don’t also know the treacherous mentality of their friends. First the TPLF neo-fascists tricked them into believing that they were at the gates of Addis Ababa while they were more than 200 km away from the capital. Political deception is a tactic in which boastful TPLF often claims it is a master.
Washington subsequently issued dozens of advisories urging its nationals and the nationals of Western countries to immediately leave Addis because the TPLF were going to enter perched atop tanks and armored vehicles as they did back in 1991 with American support. They say that history repeats itself once as a tragedy and another time as a farce. The American money and advice pouring into the foreign bank accounts of the TPLF neo-fascists was thus money thrown into the sea.
The second blunder the Washington hawks suffered was their miscalculation and the wrong lesson they drew from their recent Afghan debacle. They reasoned in the following way: The Taliban in Afghanistan have entered Kabul and returned to power after 20 years in the wilderness. Since the Taliban have accomplished that feat, the TPLF could easily enter Addis which they know well and ruled Ethiopia from there for 30 years!
The Afghan conflict and the TPLF fascist invasion have different historical and political backgrounds and dynamics that cannot evolve in the same direction. Woe to the Washington analysts who confused two situations that are driven by different sets of causes and effects. Woe to the neo-fascists who believed in their gruesome predictions.
The Washington hawks look like they are acting through a fictional drama worthy of Graham Greene’s 1955 novel entitled, “The Quiet American” and takes place during the early stages of American involvement in the Vietnam war during the period of French colonial rule. An Englishman and an American, who hold opposing views on the war, also are rivals in love. The novel is at once a thriller, a romance, and a political novel.
The TPLF neo-fascists and the Washington hawks are acting like the characters in Greene’s novel except that the fictional love affair is replaced with the true and real life love affair between the TPLF neo-fascists and the US administration whose romance as well as its analysis were based on a misreading of reality on the ground.
Last day the TPLF neo-fascists, through their spokesperson was saying that “the American position is not clear. At one time they tell us to enter into Addis Ababa and at another time they tell us the opposite!”…etc.
What is the use of trying to prove the existence of the Washington-TPLF link since one of the architects of evil perpetrated on innocent Ethiopians has boldly admitted that they are working in unison and taking orders from their Washington masters? So, the TPLF were deceiving Washington hawks and vice versa. The end game between the two will certainly come when Washington hawks will become sick and tired of the deceptive and greedy neo-fascist TPLF and look for another replacement as a proxy for their strategic calculations in the Horn.
What are however awful are rather the lies told by the US Secretary of State who was saying last week that the US had never advised the TPLF neo-fascists to occupy Addis Ababa. The TPLF are saying the opposite. “Yes, America is giving us advices!” the TPLF say. Who is right or who is wrong is irrelevant here since both are professional liars whose politics are built on the shaky foundations of lies and deception.
And what is the point of saying that Washington is “concerned” about TPLF atrocities? Why did it not say that they oppose TPLF’s fascistic acts and call on it to withdraw from the territories it illegally occupies immediately, including from the World Heritage town of Lalibela which is a de facto capital of world culture.
A few weeks back, the US state department issued a statement calling on the TPLF to take care of the Lalibela historic monuments, which amounts to saying, “Okay guys! Stay in town but take care of the sites!”
Washington hawks are acting true to their politics of deception since they accorded the protection of the World Historic site to highwaymen who rape children as young as eight, girls and old women, burn mosques and churches and expropriate whatever they bump into on their looting sprees. As we write these lines, both the empty bravado of the neo-fascists and their Washington masters are in tatters.
The hope is that these desperate ‘allies-in-arms’ would stop telling us lies anymore although they are often victims of their own bad habits. They replace pone lie by another forgetting what they said yesterday. They would not stop lying because it was through lies and deception that they have pushed Iraq, Libya and Syria into hell. And they must think that will also help them push Ethiopia into another hell.
BY MULUGETA GUDETA
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD DECEMBER 24/2021
