Workers League - Behind the US invasion of Somalia - Mehring Books

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European imperialism in the Horn of Africa, or the more recent role
of the United States in propping up tyrants like deposed Somali
leader Siad Barre, sponsoring right-wing insurgencies and fomenting
tribal warfare throughout the continent.
Silence about the past was required to justify the crimes of
American imperialism in the present and those being prepared for the
future. Journalists, scholars and political figures — from Andrew
Young to former CIA chief Richard Helms — were brought forward
to declare that the United States was acting selflessly and had "no
strategic interest" in Somalia.
The invasion was greeted with universal enthusiasm across the
spectrum of bourgeois politics. Faced with a unilateral White House
decision to dispatch 30,000 troops, a naval armada, planes, tanks and
attack helicopters halfway around the world, Congress did not even
bother to go through the motions of a debate.
Within a few weeks of the American troops landing in Mogadishu,
the media's preoccupation with the fate of starving Somalia had
vanished as suddenly as it had arisen. With US, French, Italian and
other forces attacking Somalis from one part of the country to the
other, and the toll of civilian dead and wounded rising daily, the
consensus had become: the less said, the better.
Moreover, the activities of US envoy Robert Oakley in putting
together a new Somali political apparatus subservient to Washington,
and establishing a US-trained police force were better left in the
dark.
By the end of February, less than three months after being
dispatched for the supposed purpose of feeding starving children,
American troops in Mogadishu were gunning down youth demonstrating
against colonialism as they chanted "US Out of Somalia."
As of this writing, plans were being implemented for the military
occupation of Somalia to be placed under UN auspices, with the
United States maintaining some 5,000 ground troops and an offshore
force of sailors and marines.
This book presents the record of the Workers League's response
to the invasion of Somalia. It consists of articles and editorial
statements published in the Bulletin, the party's weekly newspaper.
These articles are examples of what is a rarity today — the critical
and historical analysis of contemporary political and social developments.
At a time when the networks parrot the press handouts of the
military and call it "the news," when the Pentagon public relations
office sets the political, ideological and moral tone for the country,