Is Patriarchy to blame?

US air strike 'kill' Islamists
09/01/2007 11:48 - (SA)

Mogadishu - A United States air strike in Somalia that targeted an al-Qaeda cell wanted for two 1998 US embassy bombings killed large numbers of Islamic extremists, said government officials on Tuesday. The officials said the attacks, by a heavily armed AC-130 gunship, came after the terror suspects were spotted hiding on a remote island on the southern tip of Somalia, close to the Kenyan border. It was the first overt military action by the US in Somalia since the 1990s and the legacy of a botched intervention - known as "Black Hawk Down" - that left 18 American servicemen dead. Deputy prime minister Hussein Aideed said: "The US was trying to kill the al-Qaeda terrorists who carried out the bomb attacks on their embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. They have our full support for the attacks."

US sends air carrier to Somalia

The US air strike came 16 days after Ethiopia forces invaded Somalia to prevent an Islamic movement ousting the weak, internationally recognised government from its lone stronghold in the west of the country. America and Ethiopia both accused the Islamic group of harbouring extremists, among them al-Qaeda suspects. Ethiopian troops, tanks and warplanes took just 10 days to drive the Islamic group from the capital, Mogadishu, and other key towns. Meanwhile, the US military said on Tuesday that it had sent an aircraft carrier to join three other American warships conducting anti-terror operations off the Somali coast.

US warships had been seeking to capture al-Qaeda members thought to be fleeing Somalia in the wake of Ethiopia's December 24 invasion. The US attacks took place on Monday afternoon on Badmadow island. The area was known as Ras Kamboni and was suspected to be a terror-training base.

Most Islamic fighters 'killed'

A government spokesperson Abdirahman Dinari said: "The strike was carried out after it had been confirmed that al-Qaeda members are hiding there in the area. "We don't know how many people were killed in the attack, but we understand there were a lot of casualties. Most were Islamic fighters." Witnesses said that at least four civilians were killed in the attack, including a small boy. The claims could not be independently verified. Mohamed Mahmud Burale said: "My four-year-old boy was killed in the strike. The plane was firing at other areas in Ras Kamboni. We could see smoke from the area. We also heard 14 massive explosions."

After two days of fierce fighting, Ethiopian and Somali forces said they were on the verge of capturing Ras Kamboni, where they said the Islamic movement was cornered. US officials said after the September 11 attacks that extremists with ties to al-Qaeda operated a training camp at Ras Kamboni and al-Qaeda members were believed to have visited it. According to one of the convicted bombers, the alleged mastermind of the embassy bombings in East Africa, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, escaped to Ras Kamboni.

(Copied and pasted from News24.com)

OK, now I am the first to admit that I know nothing about Politics, nor do I care to know – since in my humble opinion, its all just a pissing contest that the Patriarchs instituted to determine who gets the best parking spaces… but can somebody please tell me what gives the US the right to just bomb things? “Oh, no we sort of think that they were harbouring terrorists, pity about the civilian casualties…”

Am I alone in feeling slightly nervous about these trigger-happy so-called leaders of the free-world just having the right to bomb whatever they don’t understand or suspect or are afraid of? I bet Michael Moore agrees with me…

“I know! Lets just kill everyone who doesn’t agree with us along with any one who gets in the way of that mission!”

As a child of the western world – ok, I’m a tree-hugger hippie feminist – I can sympathise with the need to make the world a safer place, but surely there are many other ways to go about it!

How many other countries are in dire need of some help from their more affluent neighbours? Are we forgetting Zimbabwe? Imagine for a second what it must be like to wake up every day, not have any decent food or shelter, hostility all around you, kids - starving and afraid for their lives.. What about the way woman are still treated in the non-westernised world? who is in charge of fixing that? Why the hell are they not doing their job!

What the hell is going on? The rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer – even in South Africa (supposedly the gateway to the rest of Africa) the amount of homeless people and the people begging at intersections have increased drastically in the last 2 years… I’m not saying lets redistribute the wealth equally in a Communist fashion, but there must be another way than the general apathy doing the rounds.. Who is supposed to take care of things like that? Our Government? Ha!

I’m sounding like a pessimist, but I assure you I am not. Things are bound to get better – albeit slowly. Imagine for a second what the world would be like if people stopped being so selfish and learned to communicate/compromise better. Are we truly so incapable of sharing the planet as a species? Would it be better if Mother Earth purges us once and for all, seeing as though we only cause pain and destruction where ever we settle? Can you believe that killing baby seals is considered a sport? I am outraged at the arrogance of those fuckers who decided that! And what's with the fuckers who let them get away with it?!

Sometimes I wish I had become one of those Greenpeace vigilantes… Are human beings truly nothing more than a virus, Mr Smith?

And another thing!

In Kwazulu-Natal, they are soon beginning construction on a new airport. Yeah! Progress!

Pity that the area that they want to build it on (the La Mercy area) is the only place in the world where many different Swallow-species come to breed! Sorry Nature! If you get in our way, we’ll just make you disappear.. Am I alone in seeing this as wrong? How do these people get their building permits anyway? Is there not some sort of investigation that is supposed to take place? Did they get the permits through corrupt channels? Or is the government aware of the situation and simply does not care? I don’t know which scenario is worse..

What to do, what to do….