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Africa
Notes
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Haile Sellassie found in USA a good partner to balance the British and French interests in Africa. The colonial period was over and Ethiopia was the only country which had its independence. He liked Americans.
Ethiopia was the only stable country on the continent which was going through coups and revolutions. Americans liked him.
In reprospect the US and Ethiopian relations were good since the postwar times till 1974. In Ethiopian history books Nixon will be remembered as the US president who betrayed Africa. The years after that were full of misunderstanding and mistakes by US. Somalian war, diplomatic support for Mengistu, lack of understanding the Erirtrean and Tigrean rebels, blind support for Meles government...
Of course, Ethiopia is no exeption. The New World Order was and is just an idea. There is no strategy and tactics for this concept.
Although we see the actions. The Defencing Doctrine of NATO is no more.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union a new ill-defined concept of "New World Order" has emerged. Does it mean that USA will execute this "order"? What are those new laws which suppose to govern this new world? Strange enough the old feelings of nationalism came into play under the "new" order. Ethiopian policies with America and the West are transparent -- economic and financial. But what about American politics in Africa? Are they based on human rights and democracy? Ah! What about those "American interests" we keep hearing about? It was the oil in the Guilf War... or the invasion of the country by its bigger neighbor? Or the balance of powers? Or maybe a war against this unfriendly regime of Sadaam?..
There is another name for silence -- the noise. American foreign policy is conducted by TV (polls). How effective this crowd-style policy could be? You judge it, it is done by you and in your name.
There is a method in this madness. The break up between the comrades in Asmara and Addis had to come and it did. The reason for it is simple -- peace. Both countries lived through several years of economic development and as result of it there was some development of the alternative powers -- business, financial, intellectual. Meles had many inner enimies to fight, Issayas was looking for them everywhere. Eritrea's little conflicts with the neighbors were necessary for keeping up the Eritrean national spirit, the only commodity EPLF could offer to people (introduction of its national currency was of the same purpose). Nothing could satisfy "national pride" better than a renewal of conflict with Ethiopia, which brought this war into existance in the first place. The war with Yemen or Sudan cannot be easialy understood by the Eritreans, the war with Ethiopia would bring back the recent memories. It was the easiest war to sell to Eritrea.Issayas doesn't want peace and never wanted a war with Ethiopia, but THE STATE OF WAR. The best for him to keep this perputal "border war" as long as possible. For another 30 years, maybe? He needed the tention and he created it. He misculculated a little bit the Ethiopian responce and immidiately call for international intervention. But he knows his comrade-at-arms Meles, who needs the power consilidation no less than Issayas. Both of them are much more in need now, when the countries are at war. If the population support will go down again with time, why not to thrown into a slauther few more thousands on each side? He is not a madman, the people who can't see his strategy and tactics are mad.
There is nothing strange about American policies in the Horn of Africa, too. Why shouldn't US keep both in place and play both? Of course the State Department officials know about Libean support for Eritrea, but the American public doesn't know and won't know if the government won't let its fourth branch (media) to let them know. Why should Americans know about the conflict and the war between Eritrea and Ethiopia?
You see, in Europe after the collapse of the Warsaw Pack the existence of NATO was in question, including the presence of American troups. Not anymore. US is about to stay in Europe for long time! The Serbs saved NATGO and served American interests well. So did the two little guys in Asmara and Addis. Who now would question the need for this American global presence? Let them fight, not much, but they are good boys, they know how to keep it under control.
I wouldn't claim that it all done knowingly. The absence of grand plans is the strength of American foriegn policy for the times of the New World Order. All you have to do is to have incompitant leadership. Little mess here and there justifies their positions. They don't want situation to be resolved. What will they then? No, lets bomb Iraq a little, send marines here and there and see your popularity grow.
Could they get us into a big mess? How do you think the first world war began?
Politics is a cynical business. It was cynical under the professionals, it's no less cynical in the hands of amatures. Maybe it's stupid, but wouldn't you prefer a stupid Hitler instead of a smart one? We don't trust politicians, we don't trust anybody anymore -- let them be stupid!
One of the popular quotes in Soviet Russia was Lenin's words that every cook should know how to govern the state. What a power of a communist mind! To see the American politics at the end of the century, when a poet "acts" a Secretary of Defence! Why not? Madness? No, New World Order, my friends! Unlimited total democracy! It would be possible if not for the brain-dead majority.
US & Ethiopia on Diaspora page Politics Guide Front Counter:
Click on Eritrea's map to visit the page on Ethiopian-Eritrea conflict of 1998-1999.
Eritrean problems in many ways are the product of Western politics and, of course, the leading power of the West -- United States. I can say "by-product" (because most Americans will not find Eritrea on the map, they wouldn't even know where to look for it). America which fought its Civil War on the grounds of preserving the unity of the country has a diffirent philosophy today -- it's supports the separation and self-determination of every minority. Obviously, the rest of the world which is not based on the melting pot of immigrants, but on ethnicity, is a difficult place for the American mind. Jews and Arabs do not fight each other on the streets of New York -- why don't they behaive the same way in Jerusalem? We don't understand it!
Of course, we don't. To be a Jew or an Arab is my personal business in the States. Not in the old world, my friends! To be Jew or Arab is no less important for self-identification in Palestine than your social security number and driver's licence in US. Crazy? No, different. Should they just give up this old stuff, including centuries of traditions and riches of cultures? What do you say, my fellow Americans?
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Addis Ababa - Tibor P. Nagy Jr., the new U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia, arrived in Addis Ababa on October 2, 1999. He was the Ambassador in Guinea from 1996-1999. Before that, he was the Deputy Chief of Missions in Lagos.
Ambassador Nagy joined the Foreign Service in 1978 as a management analyst in the Bureau of Personnel, where he served for a year. After serving as a general services officer in Lusaka from 1979-81, he was assigned to Victoria, Seychelles, for two years as administrative officer. He was a post management officer and systems administrator in Washington for a year and was assigned to Addis Ababa as an administrative officer from 1984-86. For the next six years, he was Deputy Chief of Mission at Lome (1987-90) and Yaounde (1990-93)
Mr. Nagy was born in Budapest on April 29, 1949. He received a B.A. from Texas Tech University in 1971 and an M.S.A. from George Washington University in 1978. He speaks Hungarian and French as well as English. He has received four Meritorious Honor Awards and was a runner-up for the Deputy Chief of Mission of the Year. Mr. Nagy is a resident of Texas, and is married to Eva Jane Nagy and has two sons and a daughter; Peter, Stephen, and Tisza.
It will be recalled that during his senate confirmation hearing on August 5,1999 Mr. Nagy said that the most important priority of the US in the horn of Africa was to stop the fighting between Ethiopia and Eritrea as well as to address the border dispute which triggered the conflict. He also claimed that Ethiopia was one of the USA's "most important partners in Africa."
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@1999-2000 house of sellassie
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