The recent strike on Somalia and the apparent murder of Aden Hashi Ayro http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/world/africa/02somalia.html raises major questions that any world leader of an empire in a world of instant information needs to cover.

I have three points and a conclusion I want to make: diplomacy in Somalia should have been pursued but was not, the killing of Aden Hashi Ayro was illegal, and the current Somali government propped up by an Ethiopian invasion backed by the US is illegitimate and will not last.

The conclusion is that the blow-back from this US action will be up to the next president to deal with more intelligently. 

The United States had a chance to diplomatically engage with the Union of Islamic Courts when they consolidated the country in 2006.  In a country with more than 18 years of civil war, designated by many as the greatest human rights tragedy in the entire world, the United Sates could have isolated the more radical elements of the Union of Islamic courts by dangling aid as a carrot and conversely the lack of it as a stick.  This would have been easy.

Second, the killing of this man, Aden Hashi Ayro, with up to 30 other innocents also killed amounts to extra-judicial murder.  No judge, trial, or jury - just a Tomahawk missile launched with permission from Central Command in Tampa Bay, Florida.  This is what - the fourth time the US has done this?  In each of the other attacks on Somalia, no one except innocents and goats have died. In the latest attack, Somali's claim that 30 have died.  A ratio of 1 to 30 is not even close to success. 

The counter intelligence and intelligence of the Bush administration is not very good -  unless nomads and goats are targets.  The Bush administration blithely accepts the loss of these innocent lives and their livestock as it pursues extra-judicial murder.

Perhaps this should come as no surprise given the US-backed torture and death in its prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo; in each case, - well beyond the bounds of the Geneva Convention. 

Just what we need as we try to inspire the world with a democratic vision - the US with no judge except Bush, a stacked jury, and an executioner.  Any fair-minded person would argue that the actions that the US has pursued in Somalia are illegal.

Third, the Bush administration bankrolled an invasion of one African country by another; in this case of Somalia by Ethiopia.  The Ethiopian Ogaden has always been disputed territory and has long been a source of friction between Ethiopia and Somalia.  Ethiopia eyes the rich oil wealth of the region (so does China – how quickly we forget the kidnapping of Chinese oil engineers in the Ogaden last year!).  Ethiopia apparently has its own imperial ambitions given its US-backed occupation of Somalia.  

Still, no country will accept invasion and occupation, Iraq by the US or Somalia by Ethiopia.  To the extent that either nation continues its occupation, resistance will continue.  For Ethiopia, it will be its African Viet Nam.

The most damning part of all this is the hypocritical component of the US-backed Ethiopian invasion.  The weapons used by Ethiopia were supplied by North Korea. The Bush administration officially designated Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as an "axis of evil".

The Bush administration knew that the weapons needed by Ethiopia to carry out its invasion were of an older Soviet type and North Korea was a supplier.  On Bush's watch, the ships with the weapons Ethiopia needed to invade were tracked from the Asian "axis of evil" and arrived safely just in time to exacerbate the carnage in Somalia.

Mr. Ayro's death will do little to mend the horn of Africa and we have done more damage than good with our cap guns and cowboy hats.  More worrisome are the larger issues, lack of diplomacy, extra-judicial murder (based on unknown domestic or international surveillance), and the support of an "axis of evil" country for the invasion of one African country by another.

Karl Shepard

Hillsboro, OR