Somalia and the Failings of Modern American Foreign Policy

"Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations – entangling alliances with none."

-Thomas Jefferson,
3rd President of the United States of America.


I find it rather perplexing that modern American politicians, time and again, seem to disregard the noble foreign policy principles of the founding fathers of their republic. Indeed, it is strange that modern America has become an entity which seeks to remake all the nations of the world in its own perceived image. I can only speculate upon the true motives behind such a curious kind of behaviour, and I very much doubt that the political elites of modern America—even privately amongst themselves—can provide a definitive explanation of the motives which ultimately drive such destructive political impulses.

Perhaps a staggering, and unhealthy, lack of political self-awareness has taken hold of the American psyche for the best part of the past 100 years. In this relatively short period of time in human history, modern America has managed to both achieve great successes and to fall victim to evidently self-inflicted foreign policy disasters. Clearly, modern America’s emergence from unilateral isolation during the early part of the last century, and its decisive role in securing strategic Allied victories in both World Wars—and the Cold War—cannot be denied.

However, modern America—despite its much vaunted super-power status—has failed in several significant theatres of foreign activity during the past 100 years. Modern America—for various reasons—and in pursuit of a certain kind of liberal interventionist foreign policy, which I firmly believe it has inherited from a particularly brutal European continent of a bygone age, has failed spectacularly in places like Korea, Vietnam, and Somalia during the past 100 years.

Modern America, in my opinion, has clearly abandoned the principles of its founding fathers—as eloquently described in the above quoted phrase taken from the inauguration speech of President Thomas Jefferson in the year 1801. This regrettable loss of authentically American values, in my view, has led to truly disastrous consequences in many parts of the world. In the specific case of Somalia, we have seen modern America support the most feared, and hated, members of Somali society—the warlord fraternity of Somalia—for the sake of political expedience. Modern America had chosen to arm and support men with extensive criminal histories: Men with the blood of literally thousands innocent Somali civilians on their hands, and for no discernable profit!

To add insult to injury—and as a consequence of the many failures of the warlord fraternity of Somalia: these men had failed to achieve the political aims specifically desired by Washington D.C.—the Ethiopian army was ordered to invade the Somali national territory in December 2006 by the US government of the day. This particularly bad piece of US foreign policy soon resulted in complete disaster for all concerned, not least the Ethiopian army. When the Ethiopian army had failed to successfully install the ghastly American vehicle of occupation, called the TFG of Somalia, modern America decided—quite cynically—to modify its political approach by creating the concept of moderate Islamism, as personified by the notorious Sharif Axmed—so-called president of the monstrous TFG entity.

I believe that modern America should learn from the many mistakes of the past. I believe that the time has come to end the practices of modern liberal interventionism inside the Somali national territory. Such practices only breed resentment amongst the ordinary members of Somali society, which in turn breeds armed resistance movements inside a land that has known little but violence for the best part of a quarter of a century. The Somali people are not, as some may choose to portray them, inherently hostile to the idea of the modern American republic. However, the Somali people—like any other nation on earth—are very much hostile to the idea, and the execution, of acts of aggression directed against them and their legitimate national interests. The concept of imposing a puppet government upon the Somali people is profoundly offensive to all sectors of honourable Somali society—and I can confidently say that the overwhelming majority of Somali people share this point of view.

I am the first to admit the fact that the Somali nation has collectively, on several occasions during the past 40 years, made a number of serious political mistakes. These errors of judgement have, more often than not, led to what can best be described as self-inflicted political crises inside the Somali national territory—but Somalia is hardly alone in this regard! Having said this, it is important to identify the role played by foreign political actors, inside the Somali national territory, throughout these past 40 years. Foreign interventions, in one form or another, have stimulated and aided the rise of a certain type of so-called Somali national politics. Multiple foreign interventions, inside the Somali national territory have always favoured and supported the most rapacious, corrupt, and irresponsible members of Somali society—and always at the expense of the remainder of the ancient and honourable Somali nation. Foreign intervention, in one form or another—and modern America is certainly not alone when it comes to this type of behaviour inside the Somali national territory—is the nothing less than the root cause of the demise of the once influential Somali state.

It is quite clear to me that the cynical methods, used for the purposes of foreign interventionism inside the Somali national territory, serve neither the interests of the foreign actors who seek to influence the political destiny of the Somali nation nor the ordinary members of Somali society. To my mind, the cynical methods of foreign interventionism inside Somalia—as practiced by modern America—must be abandoned if we are to see the return of political stability and peace inside the Somali national territory. Modern America must learn to resist the urge to give material incentives to the most depraved—and untrustworthy—members of Somali society in the name of American strategic interests. Modern America must learn to benefit from the lessons of its own past. Modern America must rediscover the ideals of its own founding fathers—men who had managed to overcome the bitter experience of colonial rule, by means of an armed struggle, in order to establish the United States of America itself.