The Horn of Africa

Once again, the Gray Zone with its hard hitting excellent research team strikes out where few others (like the Nation, Democracy Now) dare to go…

The  article below is about Ilhan Omar’s “contribution” to US policy of destabilizing the Horn of Africa and undermining Ethiopia’s “new dawn”. I realize that when it comes to domestic policy – Omar is pretty good, like AOC one of the better representatives in Congress. Hate to admit it, but where foreign policy is concerned – which most Americans don’t give a hoot about – both AOC’s and Omar’s policies (and those of Bernie S.) start to unravel.

AOC supports sanctions against Venezuela as well as the attempted US back coup there. In Omar’s case, her policies have dovetailed with those of U.S. Imperialism to continue to destabilize the Horn of Africa. One has to wonder if someone higher up in the Democratic Party and or the State Department warned these progressive Congresswomen:: “You may criticize this administration’s domestic policies BUT if you start criticizing US foreign policy in Latin America or Africa you’ll regret it” – or something along those lines.

This is a fine piece by Ann Garrison, a California-based radio and print journalist whose knowledge of the Horn of Africa is pretty unique. She recently spent time in Ethiopia from which she produced a series of high quality reports. Here, quite fairly frankly, she takes Omar to task and deservedly so. The article is about much more than Omar being booed at a concert by Somalis in Minnesota.

One anecdotal note.

I was surprised when the Biden Administration began to institute sanctions against Ethiopia given how long it had been a stable U.S. ally in the Horn, if not an American proxy. Perhaps British Prime Minister Henry John Temple’s maxim about the British Empire having no permanent friends, only permanent intersts applies to Washington as well?  Some of it has to do with Washington’s fixation of countering Ethiopia’s growing relations with China – a global no-no for Global South countries. But a big part of the sanctions is targeting – not without some success – Ethiopian/Eritrean cooperation in countering the Tigrayan Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) military offensive meant to topple to government in Addis Ababa, an effort clearly supported by Washington. Such a move goes against Washington’s effort to isolate Eritrea, the only country in Africa to refuse cooperation and troop deployments by AFRICOM. Eritrea also refuses to accept World Bank and IMF structural adjustment conditioned loans.

Ethiopian-Eritrean reconciliation angers – no, infuriates – Biden, Blinken and the band of State Department neo-cons that have taken over U.S. foreign policy and Ethiopia is being punished for attempting to improve relations with its neighbors in the Horn of Africa.

Long detailed article – worth the time…

Ilhan Omar’s meddling in Horn of Africa earns boos at Somali American concert