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U.S. Should Not Support Ethiopia’s Invasion of Somalia

"Alas, there are no good guys in this war. Ethiopian President Meles Zenawi is a nasty piece of work. He has been a darling of the United States ever since the Clinton Administration’s time, when he was hailed as being part of the “African renaissance.” The war on terror has drawn Zenawi, a Christian leader of a religiously mixed but Christian-dominated country, closer to the Bush Administration. African renaissance man or not, he has been ruthless in his exercise of power. For instance, Ethiopian security forces killed nearly fifty people in November 2005 in a crackdown on protests. They also arrested thousands, including politicians, journalists, and activists."

"In fact, opposition groups speculate that Ethiopia’s invasion has less to do with the threat from its neighbor and is more an attempt to unite the country around the leadership of the unpopular Zenawi regime. Somalia and Ethiopia have been at loggerheads for a long time, and fought a full-fledged war in 1977. Attacking Somalia is a way for Zenawi to score cheap political points, with (hopefully for him) minimal casualties for the Ethiopian army."

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