In his State of the Union Address Tuesday, President Bush laid down the future of U.S. foreign policy, its virtue, and its justification: "We've come to know truths that we will never question: Evil is real, and it must be opposed."
Domestically speaking, it is important that we not question these truths, because they might get in the way of liberty and justice. Our job for the time being is to work hard, stay patriotic, and encourage both Democrats and Republicans to agree with the Bush administration. For the more audacious among us, there is the new U.S.A. Freedom Corps that will "extend American compassion throughout the world."
As there is no cost too great for freedom and security, Bush calls for the greatest defense spending increase in two decades. Countries such as Iraq, Iran and North Korea are actively building up their weapons of mass destruction - including biological, chemical and nuclear devices - and although we are doing this too, it makes them evil.
Those regimes may have kept quiet since Sept. 11, Bush says, but "we know their true nature."
This brings me to Somalia, likely target in the war on terror. I didn't mean to question the truth that the shaky Somali government is evil, harboring al Qaeda terrorists and what not, but I could not help myself.
In the 1970s, Somali dictator Siad Barre joined the Soviet club, declaring loyalty to the U.S.S.R. in return for military aid to combat Ethiopia, which at the time was a client of the United States. But in 1974, the Ethiopian monarchy fell to Marxist-Leninists, and the super powers switched their allegiances. During the next decade and a half, about $50 in annual U.S. military aid propped up Barre's regime. Despite the thousands of civilians massacred under Barre, the money kept rolling in.
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Even after the fall of the U.S.S.R., the United States kept feeding arms to Barre until 1991 when military bases were secured closer to oil - in Saudi Arabia. At this time, Barre's regime collapsed. Clan-style civil war, much like Afghanistan, has plagued the land ever since.
Warfare and droughts quickly led to famine in which 300,000 died. Under the post-Cold War U.S. "internationalist" foreign policy, it behooved the first George Bush to send 30,000 Marines and Rangers to facilitate humanitarian aid. Soon enough, however, the troops undertook the kind of operations they were trained for and this led to the Black Hawk Down drama in Mogadishu in 1993, during which 18 Marines and hundreds of civilians were killed.
Not long after, Clinton pulled the troops out and modified U.S. foreign policy so that American lives would not be endangered by scant matters in strategically unimportant developing countries. Genocide and ethnic cleansing subsequently occurred in Rwanda and Bosnia unhindered by the new policy. With the war on terror, however, we are unified again under an internationalist strategy.
Today, as in 1993, strong evidence exists that al Qaeda has a Somalia connection.
American warplanes fly over, scavenging for information on terrorist training camps. Intelligence suggests al Qaeda influence in the government, an allegation that is strongly supported by Somalia's longstanding rival, Ethiopia. There is evil there, and it must be opposed.
The obvious way to oppose it is to fund someone else to fight it, while we drop bombs on the bad guys. Who will be Somalia's Northern Alliance? Everyone wants to be.
Christian-dominated Ethiopia has thus far offered the most organized option. The danger is that the perception of a Crusade may lead to genocidal ethnic polarization. Other options include local warlords clamoring for U.S. backing. But most of these men have recently implemented Shar'ia law, which would put a damper on the "Liberate-the-women" rhetoric used for Afghanistan.
Supporting the Somali government is an idea, but even if it has few ties to terrorists, it has too little control over its population (it does not even have control of the capital). That leaves it up to the United States. But a recurrence of 1993 is feared by policy makers.
On the other hand, the war on terror is fueled by self-righteousness and vengeance, and it may suit the American public well to tear apart Mogadishu in a quick show of U.S. military might.
As Bush says, "We have shown freedom's power. And in this great conflict, my fellow Americans, we will see freedom's victory."
Questions and comments can be sent to Mike Wolff at mudrat@unm.edu.
