The Hegemon isn't horny about the Horn












(Thanks to Dr. Strauss from www.stiftungleostrauss.com)




















For much of the Cold War the Horn of Africa was a central battlefield and Ethiopia and Somalia switching sides between the US and the USSR. So it's kind of interesting that now that the Islamists in Somalia and Ethiopia are about to go to war , the American Hegemon isn't even pretending to be doing something about it. Why? Read Robert Samuelson's Farewell to Pax Americana. I think that he exaggerates American benign intention during the Cold War and makes it sound that Americans were responsible for all the progress that took place during that time. But Samuelsom makes some good points.

Comments

Cal Ulmann said…
Are you suggesting the U.S. government should do something?
12:51 PM
Leon Hadar said…
I certainly don't. It's called irony (see the end of my earlier post).
10:28 PM
dayib said…
As a nation somalia was born in the 1960 during the cold war, and having been born in that toxic environment, our republic was born with serious birth defects and was put in a cold war dependent life support system.
With the end of the Cold War, the life support system was removed.
11:43 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pundits who screw-up: No big deal...

Image
Matt Barganier desconstructs Andrew Sullivan's mea sorta culpa on Iraq in Time magazine (Sullivan seen above in a thoughtful pose on Bill Maher's "Real Time"). There have been many of those in recent weeks (including by WFB and Fukuyama ). In an commentary published last year, Oops! I helped start a War which was about one of the earlier apologizing-war-aplogists, I pointed out to the contrast between the way the losers who operate in the market (including financial analysts) are punished and the reality in which the losers in the political game (including foreign policy analysts) rarely get punished: Imagine: for a few years you were investing the money you had saved for your daughter's college education in one of those moderately conservative plans that provided some increase in the value of the investment without exposing it to major risks. But then your financial planner – let's call him Ken P. – got in touch with you and came up with a really great ide
Read more

When will Israel attack Iran?

Image
I'm not an "Intelligence analyst" and I don't play one on television. But I urge you to study the following items: 1. Seymour Hersh new piece in The New Yorker, "The Next Act: Is a damaged Administration less likely to attack Iran, or more?" 2. Tony Karon's "Israel's Domestic Political Games Raises the Danger of a U.S.-Iran War." 3. Aluf Benn's "Olmert's Drums of War" in Haaretz . 4. Bush:I would understand if Israel chose to attack Iran. 5. Michael Oren's op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal on November 16 which is only accessible to subscribers. So here are a few interesting quotes: Much like 1967, Israel faces a Middle Eastern leader who has repeatedly sworn to wipe it off the map, and to that end is assiduously trying to acquire nuclear weapons. Like Nasser, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can cripple Israel economically by keeping it in a state of alert, driving away foreign investment and tourism. In the absence of interna
Read more