Russ Feingold, liberal Senator extraordinaire who recently decided not to run for President, is in Ethiopia (and so is Donald Yamamoto, the next US ambassador to Addis). In the new Senate where Democrats will have a razor thin majority, he could very well be chair to the Senate's African Affairs Subcommittee. Sadly, however, last year he confused Ethiopia with Darfur during a Senate hearing.
So, in that light, I implore him to read this article. The news that the US is drafting a UN resolution to allow Ethiopia (and Kenya) to protect Baidoa is idiotic, and tragic pseudo-colonial tinkering at its worst. (Well, nothing can be worse than Iraq so let's call it the second worst.) This weekend, Prime Minister Meles said that he wasn't waiting for a US greenlight to act on Somalia, but it can be safe to say that he probably is and the UN draft resolution is it.
What did the State Department spokeman, Doug McCormack, say to "rumours" of the UN draft resolution yesterday? Here you go :
Like I said, it must be nice to be in a think tank on the outside [International Crisis Group]. Look, we're -- yeah, we are actually working very closely with the -- a number of other states that have an interest in trying to address the multitude of challenges that face Somalia. And nobody wants to see any of this spread into wider instability in the region. I think that there are probably some in the region who would like to try to use the situation in Somalia to try to promote greater instability in the region, in the Horn of Africa. We're working with a number of different states with the Somalia Contact Group on a number of different strategies to try to see that that doesn't happen. And part of that involves strengthening the Transitional Federal Institutions in Somalia, which admittedly are at the moment not very strong.
So we have an interest in seeing greater stability in the Horn of Africa. We do have a strategy. We are working with other interested states as well as neighbors, neighbors in the region. And you know, with due deference to their opinion, we believe we're pursuing the right strategy.
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