America’s latest Somali adventure, in partnership with Ethiopia, is
beginning to get a bit complicated. A news report (see below),
indicates that the U.S., allowed a shipment of North Korean
arms and military supplies purchased by Ethiopia, to go through despite
a United Nations resolution against North Korean arms shipments. Back
in October, 2006, North Korea tested its new nuclear arsenal, which
caused President Bush to get all hot and bothered. Actually, quite a
few nations and leaders reacted with alarm, even though everyone knew
the North Koreans would eventually test a weapon of some sort.
Anyway,
back to the Ethiopian issue: As you will recall, in December, 2006,
Ethiopia intervened in the ongoing Somali Civil War with clear American
support. U.S. warplanes conducted air strikes on Islamist targets, the
U.S. Navy blockades the Somali coast, and American Special Forces
accompanied Ethiopian troops into Somalia and apparently aided in the
interrogation of suspected al-Qaida and other Islamist prisoners.
It
is obvious that America and Ethiopia are allies, which does explain why
Washington wants Ethiopia to have a well-supplied military. But the
question comes up as to what is more important: pacifying Somalia and
keeping al-Qaida out, or being serious about showing North Korea we
are serious about punishing them for their nuclear program? And if we
are going easy on North Korea despite our threats and bellyaching
about their nuclear ambitions, won’t Iran and other would be nuclear
powered threats look at this incident and wonder just how serious we
are about them?
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/15/MNGVLP6LVQ1.DTL&type=politics