07.16.09
My Comments on the Somalia Portion of Me Against My Brother
I’m currently in the middle of reading a book by Scott Peterson called, Me Against My Brother: At War in Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda. I recently finished the first section, which is on Somalia. Peterson devotes nine chapters to Somalia and starts off describing for his readers what it’s like in Somalia and then explains a little about their history, which helps to explain why they are the way they are–warlike and suffering from hunger. Peterson documents how the rest of the world came to know of the mass starvation that Somalia was experiencing as a result of the feuds between the warlords. The subsequent UN and US “aid” to Somalia, then the misunderstandings, which later resulted in a “worsening” of the situation in Somalia, to finally the departure of both the US and the UN from Somalia. Talk about an eye opener. This helped me to understand a little more of Africa that has been hard for me to comprehend when seeing all the starvation in the media.
Like the Congo and other parts of Africa, there were attempts to colonize and subjugate the Somalis. But unlike much of Africa, the Somalis have never been fully colonized or subjugated due to their resolve to be independent. Their cultural and religious beliefs are so deeply ingrained in the Somali tribes, which includes extreme loyalty to their respective clans and an extreme resolve for “revenge” that much in-fighting amongst Somalis resulted in the starvation of their own people. I am reminded of the importance of the Bible scripture to “not let the sun go down on your anger.” This is a problem that the Somalis have and which they carry for years and through “generations.” Their lust for revenge will never end until they learn to “not let the sun go down with their anger.” This coupled with man’s tendency for greed perpetuates warfare amongst them. The misunderstanding of Somali culture and religion by the UN and the US, according to Peterson, escalated the already existing conflict in Somalia during the early 1990. The early attempts to colonize Somalia by the Italians introduced the more modern and lethal weaponry that today allows the warlords free reign over the masses.
There is no such thing as “gun control” in Somalia, and weapons are sold in their market places like vegetables with rounds dangling in strips along their “storefronts,” various weapons lined up like candy, and grenades showcased by the wheelbarrows. There are no restrictions or limitations to weapons “demonstrations,” as machines guns are randomly fired right in the market place, no doubt one of the causes of injury and even deaths from stray bullets. All families are believed to be “armed” and even as the injured civilians are admitted to the hospitals for wound treatments, they bring along their guns for protection. The “Wild West” still exists in Somalia, but from the descriptions given by Peterson, is much more lethal. He may be right in that I have never heard that the old wild west villains ever caused mass starvation and didn’t cruise along the streets in “technicals,” trucks with mounted machine guns and other weaponry.
The original intent of the UN and US intervention in Somalia during the early 1990s was said to be relief and was prompted by the graphic images of the starving women and children through the media. In an effort to give the Somalis relief, the UN and the US sent in tons of food and other supplies. Unfortunately, and to the dismay of the UN and the US, just giving aid was not as simple as expected. The food and supplies were being intercepted and stolen by the truck loads by the various warlords before it could reach the needy civilians. As the UN and the US realized this, they tried to negotiate with the warlords, but as Peterson asserts, the misunderstandings of the Somali culture only fueled the fire as the US took sides with “one” of their warlords. Mistake after mistake culminated into what we know today as Bloody Monday. Several grave mistakes were made, one was siding with one of the warlords, then turning on him. Another, although done with “seemingly” good reason was not “equally” disarming the competing warlords. The explanation was that the UN and the US didn’t want to disarm them because they did not want to come across as a mission to colonize, but just relief. Which is a good reason, but backfired when the miscalculation was made of taking sides, then turning on one of their most powerful warlords, Mohammed Farah Aidid. An example of how the US sided with the warlord was by attempting to disarm rival warlords while leaving Aidid’s weapons intact and thus it became evident to the rival warlords that Aidid was immune and thus untouchable. This greatly strengthened Aidid and raised more strife amongst the clans. So while at first the US was warmly welcomed in Somalia, later the US became the target enemy of Somalia not only by the Somalia militia, but also the Somali citizens as was evident on Bloody Monday in October 1993. All this because of “misunderstandings” between the UN, the US, and Somalia.
As I read Peterson’s account of the events that lead to Bloody Monday (one of the 1993 conflict in Mogadishu), I recalled watching years ago the movie, Black Hawk Down. I thought it was an incredible story, but didn’t quite understand why things in the movie were happening. It was just crazy fighting. But now that I’ve read Peterson’s explanations, it made a lot of things fall into place and so I rented the movie, Black Hawk Down, again to see if the movie really did make sense and I just didn’t get it at the time. It was claimed to be based on a true story, which always grabs my attention. I think the movie Black Hawk Down was made based on a book called Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War by Mark Bowden. I will have to eventually read that book to see what Bowden’s take was on the Somali conflicts. Anyway, as I re-watched the movie, I felt that it really was misleading because there was not adequate explanation of the Somali culture and history to understand why the Somalis, both militia and civilians, were going ballistic. The movie portrayed their strife as incomprehensible. In Peterson’s book, Me Against My Brother, he makes evident that the UN and the US really were carelessly stepping on the Somali toes, so to speak. They encouraged peace talks, then inexplicably fired at their elders’ assembly. The UN and the US did not work in harmony, and even within the US military there was discord. That combined with Somalia’s long history of revenge and propensity to fight to the death was dynamite. Dozens of US soldiers’ lives were lost and many injuries also were sustained. Amongst the Somalis, hundreds of lives were lost as well as more injuries. The result of that conflict was the evacuation of the US forces. The Somalis, as in times past, once again repelled the foreigners.
There are quite a few noteworthy aspects to discuss regarding Peterson’s nine chapters on Somalia. One such aspect is the role of the media. We all know that our media is censored. While it’s true that there are some good reasons to censor parts of our media, the down side is that we never get the full coverage. For instance many images of war never make it in print because they are just too graphic. The result is that we often don’t fully appreciate the horrors of war and the destruction it causes. The US military casualties are often hidden or the numbers purposefully obscured to avoid demoralization of the folks back home. Likewise, any US military defeat is downplayed. The 1993 Somalia conflict is an example of that as the military often would not admit defeat, but rather claimed that operations were successful, completed as planned and expected. Civilian casualties were grouped and classified as combatants. Blunders were justified as “routine” tactics and/or ignored. Another form of censorship that became evident to me while reading Peterson’s book was not from the media, but from the military and government themselves by their “prepared” speeches. The information relayed to the press often were sprinkled with inconsistencies, omissions, and outright lies. It’s no wonder that so much misinformation is spread when not only is the media censored, but when misinformation is purposefully released to make certain issues, missions, and events look under control or with a different purpose. Even the Somalis quickly picked up on this.
There was another matter of personal conflicts and non-cooperation within the the UN, the US, and within the US military. According to Peterson, there were issues with the unwillingness to share intelligence information. A good reason for that was to avoid leaks to the enemy, while bad reasons also existed that involved jealousies and arrogance. As a result, the mission carried out by the Delta Rangers called the Battle of the Black Sea, and what the Somalis call the Day of the Rangers was shrouded in secrecy. When the mission went awry, and the Delta Rangers needed help, the military back at base didn’t even know what was going on. This resulted in taking half an hour to assemble rescue teams to go out and retrieve their men. A mission that was supposed to only last one hour lasted over 15 hours of heavy artillery fire. By this time the Somalis were so angry at Americans that not only were the Somali militia after “any” Americans, so were the civilians who were armed and also itching to take a crack at the downed Americans. The scene reminded me of the movie, Escape from New York, but worse.
The mission and events were so complicated that it’s impossible to write all about it in one blog entry. I do realize that I should also read other books from other perspectives, but so far, I do recommend Scott Peterson’s book, Me Against My Brother: At War in Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda. I’ve just barely started reading the portion on Sudan. . . oh my. . . It certainly gives me more food for thought and encourages me to be more considerate of others and situations that I’m not ordinarily familiar with. It also gives me more insight into the role of religion in our world, the differences and similarities of religions, and the benefits and the disadvantages of religions. It highlights for me the dangers of arrogance, and as usual, it magnifies to me the importance of Jesus’ teaching that we must love one another as He has loved us. Not as anyone loves, but as “Christ” loves.
Marlakins
