Colonialism Revisited
Anglo-American adventures around the world are beginning to look more and more like what they actually are, imperial land grabs. Forget the innocuous sounding “Nation Building” or “Humanitarian Assistance”; these wonderful euphemisms merely cloak the malign intentions of some Western states who are intent on dominating the world and securing their access to the world's mineral resources through the reassertion of colonialism.
The recent routing of a US-backed Somali militia brought the swift attention of the international media to this East African backland which has been ravaged by a murderous civil war for over 14 years. The African Union saw it a fitting opportunity to call for peace negotiations and the United Nations promised to “observe the situation.” Did the media question the legitimacy or ethics behind the US’s arming and support for one of these murderous factions? Was it not this very same US policy of arming and financially supporting warring factions which lead to the growth of Osama Bin Laden and the murders of hundreds of thousands of civilians in Latin America in the 80’s?
Whilst the US government continues its international dirty tricks and ill-conceived hidden wars, the international media pretends to be occupied with more pressing stories. The UN buries its head in the sand and the IMF and World Bank plot the forecasts for their profits from reconstruction loans and aid assistance packages.
As the world sits dolefully unaware of the repercussions of this changing world, Western countries are again redefining the borders of the world and demarking new spheres of influence. The borders of the Middle East were not defined by Arabs; they were defined in Europe in the early stages of the 20th Century. The borders of Africa too were defined in Europe and India became India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Kashmir after the British left. Little wonder many recipients of Western largesse, eventually grow suspicious and turn on their “masters.”
The façade of international assistance has long been exposed as a farce. Western governments do not commit troops to resolve a conflict or offer humanitarian assistance unless they have long-term geo-political aims in that country. Rwanda taught us this, Liberia taught us this. So when we see Western troops, NATO or any other Western lead military acronym with Western personnel on the ground, it should certainly raise an eyebrow. When we see Western governments become excitable about, Zimbabwe, Somalia and Dharfur we should certainly scratch our heads. The UN are constantly faced with the struggle of finding countries to volunteer their forces to resolve some wayward country’s problems. In the cases of Iraq and Afghanistan, the numbers of Western troops in these regions are unprecedented. We need to ask ourselves WHY?
