The Worker, Vol. 37, Number 6
The CIA War on Somalia Under Biden
The U.S. government is preparing a new military offensive in Somalia. The aim is to recruit enough foreign troops by August to "pacify" villages in the south of Somalia which are considered "no-go" areas for U.S. capital. Once again, U.S. imperialism is choosing to rely on intimidation and destruction to intensify its violence against the population.
Since Mr. Biden took office, U.S. airstrikes to suppress the national liberation struggle have continued even as Biden has re-categorized U.S. troop presence as persistent instead of rotational. Republicans have advocated more emphasis on airstrikes while Democrats have advocated more emphasis on infantry engagements.
On April 2, 2021, Biden issued a continuation of U.S. executive branch "emergency" powers using the standard war on terrorism description of the target country as an unusual and extraordinary threat to U.S. national security. This unique power has been renewed annually since it was first instituted on April 12, 2010.
The identical demagogy of Obama, Trump, Biden, and their opportunist hangers-on has been that the White House's use of emergency powers in Somalia represents the continuity of the U.S. war despite each administration's best efforts to end U.S. military intervention.
Since 2009, US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and the CIA have been conducting a large-scale air war in Somalia involving drones and other aerial gunships, naval bombardments, and cruise missile strikes. In 2014, the United States concluded its first-of-a-kind six-month training course for the so-called Lightning (Danab) Brigade military unit, conducted by Bancroft Global Development, a private military contractor funded by the U.S. State Department and headquartered in Washington, DC.
Afterwards, America's Lighting Brigade shock forces stepped into a ringleader position for directing military offensives. The latest growth goal for the brigade is 5 or 6 battalions of about 500 troops each, to be paid through America's Somalia "coordinating cell."
This degree of permanent integration with SOCOM was over 20 years in the making, as Somalia was first included as a front of Operation Enduring Freedom for Fiscal Year 2002. The U.S. also leads in selling military hardware to hand-picked buyers by receiving exemptions from a UN panel of experts assigned to oversee implementation of a British-drafted UN Security Council arms embargo.
In addition to Washington's brutal and illegal military campaign against opponents, the U.S. State and Treasury Departments have been further interfering in the Somali political process by threatening sanctions according to the dictum that "you're either with us or against us." In 2021, the Biden administration organized a complete overhaul of Somalia Sanction Regulations in order to give the executive broader interpretive powers. Washington has already spelled out dozens of sanctions aimed at liquidating local Somali businesses as well as criminalizing dissent and political expression.
Limitless in its racist and Hitlerite logic, U.S. imperialism openly labels Somalia a target chosen to "prevent the use of Somalia as a safe haven for international terrorism."
Over the last 15 years, U.S. imperialism has already imposed immense suffering on the Somali people. Years of U.S. special operations have caused massive numbers of casualties, destroyed the livelihoods of Somali farmers and fishermen, and forced thousands of residents to leave their homes. The SOCOM-CIA war causes 3 million people to remain as internal refugees today.
U.S. imperialism is already waging wars not only in Africa, but also on every continent. No people or country is safe. Washington's "preemptive doctrine" declares that the U.S. will attack any country, at any time, in order to ensure U.S. domination.
U.S. counter-terrorism policy aims to eliminate foreign state and civil society critics.
This policy is divided into 3 parts: 1) bolstering the interoperability capabilities of states which actively participate in prosecuting Washington's war program 2) categorizing the so-called enemy as a state sponsor of international terrorism 3) categorizing the so-called enemy as a designated foreign terrorist organization.
The policy is part of U.S. imperialism's worldwide program of fascism and war. In addition to "fighting international terrorism," U.S. imperialism also uses "rogue states," "dealers in contraband," "nation-building," "pre-emptive strike," "weak central government," "spreading federal democracy," etc., to justify aggression and interference against sovereign countries.
Not only the people of Somalia but also the people throughout the world and the U.S. are in motion to oppose the U.S. bombing and to demand, "Send U.S. Troops Home!"
The war in Somalia is one link in a chain of U.S. aggression and intervention across the world. The American working class and people have no choice but to be political by targeting the U.S. government and demanding an end to all of its overt and covert military intervention. This means organizing ourselves in opposition to the parties of war and capitalism. It means sweeping away the rot of opportunism in order to take the high road of struggle against U.S. imperialism. It means inspiring others with the great truth that the people – through struggle and revolution – can defeat the war plans of their "own" government.
The extremely aggressive character of the U.S. program arises from the fact that the inherent laws of capitalist-imperialism impel U.S. monopoly capital to stretch out its hands everywhere, to strive to grab up economic territory and spheres of influence. Yet the economic power of the U.S. monopolies is in relative decline. Thus, the U.S. seeks to foment tensions and militarize every situation in order to assert its hegemony on the basis that Might Makes Right.
The very social existence of the U.S. ruling class is based not only on the exploitation of the American workers but also on the superexploitation and domination of peoples throughout the world.