Glorifying Terrorism In Post-9/11 ECOWAS By Kňmbň Mason Braide, Ph.D. mailto:kombomasonbraide@msn.com Port
Harcourt, Nigeria. Thursday,
2 October 2003 Genesis
Chapter 1: In
the early 19th century, there were two opposing views in the
United States of America on the issue of freed Black slaves. One school
of thought insisted passionately that, because freed Black people posed
a serious threat to the smooth operation of the institution of slavery
in the United States of America, they could not be trusted to live
peacefully in the post-independence, post-slave
trade era. The other school of thought believed strongly that freed
Black slaves were under constant harassment, and threats of attack from
former slave owners, and so, there could never be any meaningful peace
between Whites and Blacks in the United States of America. Although
both sides vehemently despised each other, they both agreed that there
could never be national stability in a racially mixed post-independence,
post-slave trade United States
of America. It is interesting to note that there was no Black
participation in the decision-making process: all the actors in the
debate were exclusively White. In the end, it was decided to create a
Black homeland in Africa, for freed Black slaves from the USA, in
today’s Liberia. Thus, 1822 saw the establishment of the US colony of
Liberia, and the Back-to-Africa Movement in
the Americas, both of which ironically, are the creation of 19th
century White power elites in the United States of America! Liberia
was established as a colony of
the United States of America, which was only just 46 years earlier,
itself, also a colony of “Old
Europe”. Imagine for a moment, a scenario in which Nigeria sets up
a colony in Australia, with impunity, 3 years from now, in 2006, some 46
years after independence from Great Britain. That is how arbitrary the
very origin of Liberia is. Liberia
was arbitrarily, and unilaterally set aside as a homeland in Africa, for freed Black
slaves from the United States of America, in the same manner that Israel
was arbitrarily set aside as a
homeland in Palestine, for the benefit of the surviving victims of
anti-Semitism in “Old Europe”,
following a most grotesque selective extermination of over 6 million
Jews in Germany alone, during the Second World War. For
many decades, Liberia was a colony
of the United States of America in Africa, even before the sudden scramble
for Africa by “Old Europe”,
post-Berlin Conference, after
centuries of apparent apathy towards the continent. Liberians made
several passionate, though futile appeals for independence from the USA,
but were rebuffed until 1847, when it was granted independence, more as
a token political statement about Black sovereignty in the United States
of America. Since achieving independence, Liberia has functioned, more
or less, as a protectorate of the United States of America, but without
being granted any special economic, political and military
considerations whatsoever. In fact, Liberia has remained an outpost of
American presence and diplomatic influence in the ECOWAS sub-region. Although
the USA has no permanent military presence in their country, ships and
military personnel from the USA have always been welcomed by Liberians,
whenever the USA needed to display its military might in West Africa.
Liberia was commonly used by the USA as a staging post for brandishing
its military prowess along the Gulf of Guinea, and in the mid- and South
Atlantic region, over the past 100 years. Paradoxically, just like in
Palestine, today, the collective psyche of Liberia, indeed, West Africa
is overheated and stretched to the limit, in the wake of unilateral
decisions taken far away, in the United States of America, over 150
years ago. Revelations
Chapter 2003: Unlike
Israel, another brainchild of the USA, Liberia has been abandoned by the
United States of America, to bleed to death. Shortly after US President
George W. Bush (The Younger)
reminded Americans about the well-known historical relationship between
Liberia and the United States of America, as a partial justification for
sending US troops offshore Monrovia, he also made any US involvement in “liberating” Liberia from 14 years of anarchy, to be conditional
on the departure of Pastor Charles Taylor from Liberia. It is now clear
that, because of Pastor Charles Taylor, the United Kingdom exploited a fool-proof
alibi for “liberating”
Sierra Leone. Later on, the French also had another very good excuse for
“liberating” Cote D’Ivoire too. Now, US troops have gone very
close to Liberia, so as to help “liberate”
Liberia properly, should the
need arise, once again, all because of Pastor Charles Taylor. Definitely,
the USA has some kind of obligation to Liberia. Not only was Liberia
created as a result of racial conflict in the United States of America,
but the country has also spent its entire existence as a deprived child, functioning at the whims and brainwaves of the USA,
just to maintain a favoured nation status. Indeed, Liberia is the old
orphan of the United States of America. The
timing of the current Liberian crisis could not be much worse. US forces
are spread thin, with current troop deployments in four major hot spots
namely, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans, and finally the Korean
peninsula, where the possibility of war is real, and tenuously dependent
on the actions of a sub-regional megalomaniac that is hell bent on
extorting reasonable financial pacification from the USA, in order to
prevent the collapse of his country. Since
any military involvement in Liberia by the Pentagon would be as part of
a much larger multinational effort, military analysts estimate that the
USA can get by with a commitment of about 1,000 soldiers for
peacekeeping operations in Liberia. This, of course, is in a perfect
utopia, in which all the warring Liberian factions disband amicably.
However, there are a couple of problems here o earth, in Liberia: In
the real world, things never go as planned and military units in control
of territory never disband
voluntarily. It is likely that the peacekeepers will spend some time
battling a nightmarish combination of urban and cross-border terrorists,
marauding rural bandits, a rogue military elite, and diamond smuggling
cabals that are determined to test their resilience. There is also the
possibility of the introduction of terrorism specifically aimed at
attacking Nigerians and Nigerian interests, in Liberia, Nigeria, and
beyond. Generally
terrorists love regions of chaos, where US troops operate, because they
make for an easy theatre of covert operations, where casualties can be
high and dramatic. This is the so-called Somali Scenario, in which US forces went after the warlords,
believing them to be responsible for attacks against Americans, when, in
fact, the attacks came from Al-Qaeda operatives, posing as technicians,
in order to draw US marines into costly fire fights, through deception.
From all indications, Liberia has all the attributes of a Somali Scenario for Nigeria in particular, now that the USA has quietly
withdrawn its troops from Liberia. And
then there are the Liberian children. Significant numbers of Liberian
soldiers that Nigerian soldiers will likely have to face are kids of
between 10~15 years of age. Imagine the psychological impact of facing a
child-soldier in a fire fight. Imagine the trauma an propaganda impact
of seeing the decapitated, or/and mangled bodies of African teenage
soldiers in the media, worldwide. This is not a scenario that US
President George W. Bush (The
Younger) is ready to risk. However, Chief (General) Obasanjo may
have superior strategies for handling the dilemma of having to kill
child soldiers effectively, given his first hand experiences as a
veteran commander in a similar senseless civil war in Nigeria, some
33years ago. Certainly,
it is possible that the peacekeepers could stroll safely into the
Liberian interior, and everything will go smoothly eventually. Of
course, Pastor Charles Taylor has left Liberia for Nigeria, living a
blissful life in exile. Furthermore, all sides in the resultant scramble
for political power in Liberia could lay down their weapons in due
course, and the UN may ultimately work in collaboration with the
war-ravaged Liberians to effectively re-establish order, and install
democracy in their country, hopefully. Maybe. However,
it could just as well easily turn into complete chaos. If that happens,
there has to be a strong and forceful player, who is willing to take
firm control. In that case all eyes will turn, not towards Nigeria, but
to the United States of America. Unfortunately the USA is not currently
in a position to make such a commitment. The military and economic
resources required are just not available. In addition, public opinion
in the USA really does not favour the White House bunglingly stumbling
through yet another attempt at nation building overseas, like they have
failed to do in Afghanistan, and Iraq, so far. On
the other hand, if US President George W. Bush (The Younger) does nothing, Liberia would, most likely, have to
contend with several years of continued authoritarianism, urban and
rural terrorism, general mayhem, civil war, and tremendous human
suffering to look forward to, with Pastor Charles Taylor in remote
control, living fine, and feeling funky in Calabar, Nigeria, via GSM.
Thanks to the immense personal benevolence, elder statesmanship,
Afro-centricity, and omniscience of His Excellency, Chief (General)
Olusegun Obasanjo, the civilian Honourable Minister of Petroleum
Resources, Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Police, Army, Air Force
and Navy, and President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Kňmbň
Mason Braide
(PhD) Thursday,
2 October 2003 @ 5:38 pm. I
welcome your comments (via e-mail: kombomasonbraide@msn.com),
and encourage this article to be freely reproduced, published,
photocopied, scanned, faxed, reprinted, reformatted, broadcast,
digitised, uploaded or downloaded, in whatever manner or form, with or
without acknowledgement, or further permission.
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