Obama Admits Drone War in Somalia Creates Terrorism

From yesterday’s Washington Post, in an article entitled “Under Obama, an emerging global apparatus for drone killing“:

But the administration has allowed only a handful of strikes, out of concern that a broader campaign could turn al-Shabab from a regional menace into an adversary determined to carry out attacks on U.S. soil.

Here, it is admitted by the Obama administration that al-Shabab is merely “a regional menace” that does not pose a direct threat to the United States. It is also explicitly acknowledged that unleashing a drone war against the group is likely to promote them into an international terrorist group “determined to carry out attacks on U.S. soil.”

Of course, we’ve been harping on these very points at Antiwar.com since the beginning. I’m glad to hear the Obama administration, at least according to the Washington Post, understands the fundamentals of our interventions in Somalia. My fear is obviously that we’ve already passed that threshold.

U.S. intervention in Somalia doesn’t begin and end with the drone war. As Jeremy Scahill has reported, the Obama administration is running secret CIA prisons which confine uncharged individuals in terribly inhumane conditions without access to legal council, building up a Somali intelligence agency and giving weapons to thugs and murderous warlords in a proxy war, and deploying Joint Special Operations Command on the ground in Somalia. Add to that the U.S. cooperation in Kenya’s invasion and military assault on Somalia in recent months, as well as U.S. support for the Ugandan regime which also contributes to fighting al-Shabab. Go back even further to 2006 when the Bush administration sponsored Ethiopia’s military invasion of Somalia, an action which helped give rise to al-Shabab in the first place. Covert missions in Somalia go back to 2003, at least. All this and we haven’t even delved into the Somalia interventions of the 1990’s.

If we’re concerned about turning al-Shabab “from a regional menace into an adversary determined to carry out attacks on U.S. soil” we better do more than give them drone-war-lite. Or rather, we better do much, much less.

(h/t Charles Davis)

15 thoughts on “Obama Admits Drone War in Somalia Creates Terrorism”

  1. But but, the Obama's got to have a boogeymans. If'n he isn't about the business of making even more al-Qaedakabobs, how does he sell that 'global war of terror'? Got to have that 'global war of terror'. Mountains of profit to be made there boy.

  2. somalia is muslim, ethiopia, uganda and kenya are tribalist and or christian. the west needs lackeys to do the dirty work against those who practice the wrong faith in the war on isalm.

    why not kill 2 birds with one stone and not only divide and conquer africa but also setup another front and claim credit for the success

  4. This ‘situation’ has obviously spiraled way out of control. I'm sure al-Shabab and Company have more immediate concerns than the United States–even considering the US is in the "region"…that is, until they are bombarded with drone strikes from the US… Perhaps the premise is that these, albeit 'limited' number of, "drone strikes" are necessary to take out the 'limited' and identified members of al-Shabab's militia who threaten to successfully acquire J-1 students visas from the US State Department and legally enter the US to attend NYU under the guise of "Women's Studies" majors….while, at the same time, they plot to outdo the infamous 9-11 hijackers—the people who successfully took over commercial airplanes with the almighty ‘Box Cutter' WMDs… Besides, everyone knows the strikes are required to preempt retaliation of the "drone strikes" themselves…but wait… if that’s the logic, it seems circular… If it's an attempt to assemble and prop up another sham, dependent, regime which steals money from us and gives us the finger behind our backs, that objective is even more absurd.

  5. NewYearResolutions

    Lao Tzu (6th century B.C.): “The more artificial taboos and restrictions there are in the world, the more the people are impoverished…The more that laws and regulations are given prominence, the more thieves and robbers there will be…”

    “The Sage says: ‘I take no action, yet the people transform themselves, I favor quiescence and the people right themselves, I take no action and the people enrich themselves…’”

    Chuang Tzu (369-286 B.C.): “I would rather roam and idle about in a muddy ditch, at my own amusement, than to be put under the restraints that the ruler would impose. I would never take any official service, and thereby I will [be free] to satisfy my own purposes.”

    “There has been such thing as letting mankind alone; there has never been such a thing as governing mankind [with success].” The world “does simply not need governing; in fact, it should not be governed.”

    Pao Ching-yen (4th century A.D.): “Where knights and hosts could not be assembled, there was no warfare afield…Ideas of using power for advantage had not yet burgeoned. Disaster and disorder did not occur…People munched their food and disported themselves; they were carefree and contented.”

    Ssu-ma Ch’ien (145-90 B.C.): “Each man has only to be left to utilize his own abilities and exert his strength to obtain what he wishes…When each person works away at his own occupation and delights in his own business, then like water flowing downward, goods will naturally flow ceaseless day and night without being summoned, and the people will produce commodities without having been asked.”

    http://wahyusamputra.blogspot.com/2011/12/newyearresolutions.html

  7. Pingback: Literally Searching for Monsters to Destroy: Why Somalia Ain’t Getting Better « Antiwar.com Blog

  8. I wish to have world peace no more terrorism, I don't know whats in their mind and where they are coming from, I know that our government will do something about it.

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  9. Yeah, because we all know that Obama the Peace Laureate is going to end the wars, evacuate the military bases, bring the troops home and shrink the military down to the size necessary only for territorial defence.

  10. Women's Studies" majors….while, at the same time, they plot to outdo the infamous 9-11 hijackers—the people who successfully took over commercial airplanes with the almighty ‘Box Cutter' WMDs

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  21. if that’s the logic, it seems circular… If it's an attempt to assemble and prop up another sham, dependent, regime which steals money from us and gives us the finger behind our backs, that objective is even more absurd.

  22. US… Perhaps the premise is that these, albeit 'limited' number of, "drone strikes" are necessary to take out the 'limited' and identified members of al-Shabab's militia who threaten to successfully acquire J-1 students visas from the US

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