January 16th 2007 more Somali repellent news
Instead of killing Fazul Abdullah Moham-med, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and Abu Taha al-Sudani, supposedly "al-Qaeda" operatives responsible for the 1998 US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, the Pentagon killed "herdsmen … gathered with their animals around large fires at night to ward off mosquitoes."
--read at another day in the Empire
"The nomads were bombed at night and during the day while searching for water sources" says the article. That's why I wanted to mention this, aside of my feelings of disgust for everything that military america is doing to the world which are pretty obvious at this point and not really pertinent with this blog.
Because searching for water sources is really the daily task for Somali herdsmen and people of the villages, what my father used to do in Somalia when I was a kid was to design and help building aeolian-generated water plants scattered in the scrubland, so that people could be slightly freed from the slavery of looking for water for hours or even days on end.
I remember so well the trips out of Mogadishu to the villages where the plants were build, and the people that lived there, and the cattle of humped cows and dromedaries and black-headed sheep crowding the tanks of red-brown waters.
Clearly when the war started hitting hard all the work my father had done in the years rapidly went to hell: all the technicians were gone, and the University of Mogadishu had no money or reason to exist anymore and the Italian government, largely responsible for the worsening of the situation, was busy looking the other way-- so the people went back to search for water the old way, along the old tracks for days on end.
(Were later the powerful army of the empire obviously spotted them plotting international terrorism --and excuse the rhetoric ironic end here).
--in picture, above: nothing less than two of the pictures taken at the water plants somewhere in Somalia, with my then plastic-toy-camera.
4 things have been said about more Somali repellent news
I assume it was an accident that the wrong people were killed. As for being against the American military, you’d probably feel differently if one of your relatives were blown to bits at the US embassy for simply reporting to work.
What a US embassy and my supposed relative have to do here?
So the same can say those who had their relatives killed or tortured by US troops or agents: if you put a war in these terms (”evil was done to me so I am excused of any kind of violence I will commit in retaliation”), I doubt that anything useful will ever come out of it (see the case of Israel).
I think it is about time (for “us” and “them”) to evaluate new strategies to fight this supposed war on terror (like diplomacy and talks).
If you feel like cleaning your hands by saying that this case was an accident so no harm done, well, what can I say, congratulations: it is the chief argument both in Israel and everywhere American troops kill civilians so you’re in good company.
It doesn’t seem that much of an argument to me, though.
Your own post was about Somalia and not Israel, but since the idea of military actions by only the United States and Israel seem to infuriate you, and not by the many other nations at war, I will discuss Israel. If Hamas or whoever decides to launch rockets on innocent civilians it is only right for them to strike back and if they choose to do it through the military, then good for them.
True my post was about Somalia –and your comment was about a US Embassy (Kenya? Bali?) that had nothing to do with Somalia. The issue I believe is the one of the “war on terror” and as such it will involve many countries and will always involve Israel one way or another.
Anyway I wasn’t underplaying the fact that the U.S. or Israel can be attacked and suffer casualties, but the very fact that the present way of treating the problem of terrorism makes a lot of innocent victims and angry persons, and extends the conflict over any possible territory and is in my opinion a gigantic failure (though it was probably meant to be just like that from day one).