Why is Jeffrey Feltman going to Ethiopia at this “critical moment”?
Feltman is going to Ethiopia to deliver an ultimatum according to a congressional source. Feltman will tell Ethiopian leaders:
“All options are on the table, from Global Magnitsky (sanctions over human rights violations) to an executive order on sanctions, to removal from (the African Growth and Opportunity Act), to more restrictive measures on assistance as well as ways to block Ethiopia’s efforts to get cash from international financial institutions.”
Ten TRUTHS Jeffrey Feltman must understand before he goes to Ethiopia!
Read below.
TPLF “Hitman” goeth to Ethiopia again!
The Iceman Cometh but the TPLF Hitman Goeth to Ethiopia.
On August 12, 2021, President Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan tweeted “The President has asked Special Envoy Feltman to return to Ethiopia at this critical moment. We call on all parties to urgently come to the negotiating table.”
On August 12, 2021, Samantha Power retweeted, “There is no military solution to this conflict. Humanitarian needs are already dire but they will get much worse unless all parties agree to dialogue & ending hostilities.”
On August 12, 2021, the State Department announced, “U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Jeffrey Feltman will travel to Djibouti, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates from August 15 to August 24.”
On August 12, 2021, I retweeted Sullivan and Power. “Ooh wee! Somebody is hitting panic button. Not a pip for 2 mos from Jake when TPLF deployed child soldiers, massacred hundreds in Afar and Amhara regions. TPL-Feltman on white horse to save the day. Ha! Let TPLF negotiate on battlefield. Let’s keep Ethiopia great nation, always.”
It all goes back to April 23, 2021, when Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Feltman was named “Special Envoy” to lead an international diplomatic effort to address the interlinked political, security, and humanitarian crises in the Horn of Africa.”
Before the ink was dry on his appointment paper, Feltman came out with guns blazing.
On April 24, 2021, a day after his appointment, Feltman lobbed a condemnatory declaration: “Ethiopia has brushed aside African Union mediation efforts and subregional organizations that cover the Horn of Africa, the IGAD, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development as authoritarian leaders in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia draw closer at the expense of the wider collective.”
On April 26, 2021, days before he left for Ethiopia, Feltman forewarned Foreign Policy, “If the tensions in Ethiopia would result in a widespread civil conflict that goes beyond Tigray, Syria will look like child’s play by comparison.”
On May 3, 2021, the U.S. State Department announced reiterated Feltman is expected “to lead a sustained diplomatic effort to address the interlinked political, security, and humanitarian crises in the Horn of Africa.”
In my May 2, 2021 commentary “Susan Rice’s Revenge and Last Hurrah: Jeffrey TPLFeltman (Hitman) Is Itching for a Fight in Ethiopia/Horn of Africa!”, I demonstrated Feltman’s real mission as Susan Rice’s “special stooge” (“envoy”) to the Horn of Africa is to change and take control of the narrative and to bully and intimidate the leaders and peoples of the Horn of Africa.”
In my May 8, 2021 commentary, “What is an “Ugly American Diplomat” Doing in Beautiful Ethiopia?”, I argued Feltman believes he is “going to read the riot act to Ethiopia’s “authoritarian” leaders and bring them down to their knees begging, ‘Uncle Sam Feltman, massuh, boss, have mercy on us! We is poor African savages. We’ll do as you say, massuh!’”
On May 14, 2021, following Feltman’s visit the State Department announced, “The United States will work with our international allies and partners to secure a ceasefire, end this brutal conflict, provide the life-saving assistance that is so urgently needed, and hold those responsible for human rights abuses and violations accountable.”
A Fool’s Errand: Why is Feltman going to Ethiopia now?
The Associated Press quoting a congressional source reported Feltman, in so many words, is going to Ethiopia to kick ass and force the Ethiopian Government to negotiate with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a terror group registered in the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) and Terror Research and Analysis Consortium (TRAC).
Feltman is expected to dress down and whip Ethiopian leaders until they cry out, “Have mercy, Uncle Sam massuh! Uncle Jeff, massuh!”
The congressional source explained:
I understand all options are on the table, from Global Magnitsky (sanctions over human rights violations) to an executive order on sanctions, to removal from (the African Growth and Opportunity Act), to more restrictive measures on assistance as well as ways to block Ethiopia’s efforts to get cash from international financial institutions.
Suffice it to say the Italian colonial masters came to Ethiopia in 1896 and 1935 to kick ass and found out Ethiopians are the biggest ass kickers in the world.
If the Biden administration wants to intensify its diplomatic, political and economic war on Ethiopia on behalf of the TPLF, then so be it.
The great American revolutionary Thomas Pain wrote, “I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.”
If the Biden administration wants to bring trouble to Ethiopia, let it come in our time so that our children and children’s children will live in peace.
It is said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
The Biden administration, specifically Susan Rice, Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan Samantha Power, etc., before it was even inaugurated has been trashing Ethiopian sovereignty and openly favoring the TPLF terrorist groups and pressuring the Ethiopian Government to enter into “dialogue” and “negotiations” with it.
The Ethiopian Government’s answer has been clear and unambiguous: There will be dialogue or negotiations with the TPLF, a group declared “terrorist” by the Ethiopian parliament, when hell freezes over. To be sure, not until all the TPLF terrorist leaders are locked up behind the gates of hell.
I am not saying Feltman and his bosses are insane by nauseatingly repeating their mantra of “dialogue” and “negotiations” with the TPLF.
What I am saying is Feltman and his bosses simply do not understand Ethiopians or Ethiopia.
Real knowledge of Ethiopia and Ethiopians begins with two simple questions: 1) How did Ethiopians manage to maintain their independence for millennia without foreign domination? 2) “How did Ethiopians manage to keep their country free of white European colonialism when every part of Africa came under colonial imperialist rule after Berlin Conference of 1884 with the portioning of Africa?
I will not take time to answer these questions.
Suffice it to say, there is something called “Ethiopian exceptionalism” that offers a unique perspective on these questions.
If Feltman is sent to make his second-round visit with the delusion that he is going to bring Ethiopia to its knees by barking out orders and threats of sanctions and other punishments, he will surely be disappointed.
The script that runs in the DNA of every patriotic Ethiopian is, “I would rather be free and dead in my grave than live as a Western neocolonial puppet or a slave.”
Exhibit A: Behold the hundreds of thousands of young Ethiopians who have volunteered to fight the TPLF until kingdom come.
A long-forgotten 18th century English clergyman wrote, “Did not the Pope send all the Princes in Christendom upon a Fool’s Errand, to gain the Holy Land, that he might (as he did in their absence) rob them of their territories.”
I am compelled to ask a similar question. “Did not the President of the United States send his Special Envoy upon a Fool’s Errand, to gain the Holy Land of Ghion (reference to present day Ethiopia in Genesis 2:13) that he might breakup and dismember their territories or install neocolonial viceroys for them?”
Speaking truth to Feltman and his bosses
The Biden administration has been treating Ethiopia like dirt months before it formally took office.
In the early hours of November 4, 2020, the TPLF launched an attack on the Ethiopian Northern Command and massacred and tortured thousands of federal soldiers.
The TPLF’s aim was to destroy the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) in a blitzkrieg attack and swiftly take over power.
In less than three weeks, the ENDF and supporting regional forces made mincemeat of the TPLF.
Beginning on November 14 (before the Biden administration took office), Susan Rice, a longtime supporter of the TPLF sounded the alarm the TPLF was going to crash and burn and frantically tweeted asking the Trump administration to exercise “principled leadership” and save the TPLF.
On November 18, 2020, Antony Blinken, later to become Secretary of State, tweeted he was “deeply concerned about the humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia” and demanded “Ethiopian authorities should take urgent steps to end the conflict, enable humanitarian access, and protect civilians.”
On November 24, 2020, Jake Sullivan, later to become National Security Advisor tweeted he is “deeply concerned about the risk of violence against civilians, including potential war crimes.”
For the past 10 months, Susan Rice, Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, Samantha Powers and others have waged proxy propaganda, diplomatic, economic and political war for the TPLF on Ethiopia.
On August 11, 2021, the Ethiopian Government cancelled the unilateral ceasefire it had declared on June 29 against the TPLF.
The TPLF rejected the ceasefire and launched an offensive against neighboring regions killing and looting civilians. The TPLF massacred over 240 civilians in the Afar region alone.
On August 12, 2021, the Biden administration, France and the so-called a human rights organizations began cackling for “dialogue” and “negotiations”.
As Feltman slithers back to Ethiopia, he and his bosses should be aware of certain immutable truths.
TRUTH #1. The people of Ethiopia have lost respect and trust in the Biden administration which they believe to be a brazen neocolonial power pushing its hegemonic power in complete and depraved indifference to the dignity of the Ethiopian people and the sovereignty of Ethiopia. The people of Ethiopia in the country and in the diaspora are absolutely convinced the Biden Administration is hellbent on regime change in Ethiopia and reimpose upon them their TPLF puppet. That ain’t going to happen. Period!
TRUTH #2. The Biden administration must openly and publicly come to terms with the fact that the TPLF is solely and singularly responsible for the current conflict and war in Tigray region. Over the past 9 months, the Biden administration has not issued a word of condemnation against the TPLF for its barbaric acts of aggression against the Ethiopian Northern Command and myriad massacres committed by TPLF forces. Even in the face of fully documented cases of child soldier deployment, a war crime, by the TPLF, the administration has remained silent.
TRUTH #3. The Biden administration, specifically the key decision makers including Susan Rice, Antony Blinken, Samantha Power, Jeffrey Feltman and others simply do not understand Ethiopian history, the Ethiopian character or Ethiopian defiance/determination. They need to ask themselves one simple question: How did Ethiopia, a black African nation, manage to keep its independence from white European colonialism and any other foreign domination for thousands of years? White supremacy does not work on Ethiopians. Period!
TRUTH #4. The Ethiopian people and Government find the Biden administration’s insistence on “dialogue” and “negotiation” with the TPLF terrorists not only preposterously ridiculous but also deeply disrespectful and offensive. Biden’s policy makers should learn from their own history. Did Abraham Lincoln negotiate with the confederate rebels that bombarded Fort Sumter which proved to be the flashpoint for the American Civil War? No, he mobilized 75,000-man militia to suppress the confederate rebels.
Did President George Bush dialogue or negotiate with the leaders of Al Qaeda and Taliban after the 9/11? No, Bush unleashed a land and air war on Afghanistan which lasted 20 years and cost more than $2 trillion and 240,000 lives. Today, the U.S. is scurrying to get out of Afghanistan as the Taliban take a cake walk into the capital Kabul.
The Biden administration is pressuring the Ethiopian Government to negotiate with the equivalent of Al Qaeda, Taliban, Al Shabab and Boko Haram rolled into one. It ain’t happening. Period!
But here is a fact all Ethiopians shall keep uppermost in their minds as the Biden administration pressures for negotiations with the TPLF.
The last time the U.S. insisted a legitimate government negotiate with a terrorist group, that terrorist group used the negotiation process to buy time, organize and strengthen itself and launch a final deadly attack and take over power by sheer military force. That is exactly what happened in Afghanistan.
The Ethiopian Government will not repeat the mistakes the Afghan Government by playing a game of negotiations with the TPLF. It will negotiate with the TPLF in the battlefield in the only language the TPLF understands.
TRUTH #5. The Biden administration must stop its practice of false equivalency between the Ethiopian Government and a terrorist group, the TPLF. The Ethiopian Government and the terrorist TPLF are not on the same level legally or politically. The Ethiopian Government cannot negotiate with a group designated by the Ethiopian Parliament “terrorist” as a matter of law. Period! The Biden’s administration’s nauseating insistence on negotiations and dialogue with the TPLF shows U.S. disingenuousness or outright contempt for Ethiopian sovereignty.
TRUTH # 6. The Biden administration has had nothing but criticism and condemnation for the Ethiopian Government over the past 10 months. The administration has shown no acknowledgement of all the positive things the Ethiopian Government has done to deescalate the conflict and ensure the humanitarian needs of the people of Tigray are met in the shortest possible time. When the Ethiopian Government provided full humanitarian access, the admisnistration demanded “full humanitarian access” and uninspected passage of relief aid to supply weapons to the TPLF. There was no acknowledgment that the Ethiopian Government provided 70 percent of the relief aid to Tigray or is currently undertaking human rights investigations jointly with the UNHCR. No acknowledgement when the Government declared a unilateral ceasefire.
TRUTH # 7. The Biden administration must stop treating Ethiopia as if it is its colony. The imperial attitude of ordering and commanding the Ethiopian Government to negotiate with the TPLF smacks of the old colonial order. In 1991, then Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Herman Cohen staged a “dialogue” and “negotiations” for the TPLF in London and facilitated their swift seizure of power. Susan Rice, Blinken, etc. cannot pull off a repeat of 1991 in 2021. Period!
TRUTH # 8. It is in the Biden administration’s hand to change the course of worsening relations between the U.S. and Ethiopia. The two countries have had bilateral relations as sovereign partners for well over a century. In 1977, a major breach in bilateral relations occurred when the Carter administration failed to deliver military hardware purchased by Ethiopia to fend of Somali aggression. That transformed the geopolitical situation and scaling down of U.S. presence in Ethiopia, close long-standing structures like the United States Information Service (USIS), the Military Advisory and Assistant Group, (MAAG), the Peace Corps and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The threat of imposition of Global Magnitsky sanctions, removal of Ethiopia as a beneficiary of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, blocking Ethiopia from international financial institutions, etc. will merely escalate and worsen the situation.
TRUTH # 9. The Biden administration has awakened a sleeping giant in the consciences of all Ethiopians. It is called “Ethiopiawinet” (Ethiopianity or Ethiopian-ness) or Ethiopian nationalism. They see U.S. interference in the internal affairs of Ethiopia as an existential threat. They see their fight against the TPLF as a fight for the preservation of the territorial integrity and political sovereignty of their country. They see negotiation with the TPLF not only as a return to the last 25 years of TPLF oppression, corruption and abuse of power but also as an affront to their humanity, dignity, sovereignty and Ethiopianity. It is not in the national interest of Ethiopians to negotiate with terrorists. Negotiating with the TPLF for the Ethiopian people simply stated is negotiating for the total dismemberment and destruction of the Ethiopian nation. That ain’t gonna happen. Period!
TRUTH # 10. ETHIOPIANS UNITED WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED!
The Biden administration should understand that Ethiopians united defeated the mighty Italian army in 1896 fighting with bows, arrows, swords and muskets. They defeated the mighty Italian army against in 1941 after a five-year occupation. The administration should not overestimate its powers to crush the will of the Ethiopian people nor underestimate the will of the Ethiopian people to defiantly resist regardless of how long it takes to preserve their nation.
The Biden administration should not repeat in Ethiopia the mistakes of the Nixon administration in Vietnam.
In 1969, Nixon’s National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger said “I refuse to believe that a little fourth-rate power like North Vietnam doesn’t have a breaking point” as he instructed his aides to develop a punitive military strategy that would coerce North Vietnam into negotiating on American terms.
In April 1975, the “fourth-rate power of North Vietnam” overran Saigon as the U.S. scrambled to evacuate Americans from the country.
History has repeated itself today, August 14, 2021.
It is Saigon 1975 in Afghanistan today.
As the Taliban sweep over Afghanistan and isolate Kabul, the capital, the U.S. is sending Marines to airlift Americans and Afghans who supported Americans out of the country.
The reprehensible and wicked Taliban won because they fought following the principle, “Afghans United Will Never be Defeated.”
The Biden administration can impose its sanctions and other punitive actions against Ethiopia and make the lives of the Ethiopian people hard and difficult.
But no amount of sanctions can break the spirit of the Ethiopian people. They are used to hardship and privation.
The ball is in the Biden administration’s court
Does the administration want to change course and deal with Ethiopia fairly and in good will and good faith? Does the administration want the minds of the Ethiopian people to be indelibly imprinted as TPLF protectors and godfathers? Does the administration want to continue the good bilateral relations cultivated over the past 120 years? Or does the administration want to stay the course and bring Ethiopia to its knees and install the TPLF to power?
I hope Special Envoy Feltman will go to Ethiopia with genuine olive branches and good will to reboot Ethio-U.S. relations.
I hate to say it, but I must.
If Feltman is going to Ethiopia to deliver an ultimatum of sanctions, threats, punishments, etc., I am afraid the Ethiopians will tell him to go to HELL, HELL, HELL!
Ethiopians and only Ethiopians will determine their collective destiny. No one else. Period!
ETHIOPIANS UNITED WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED!
TPLF “HITMAN” JEFFREY FELTMAN SLITHERING BACK TO ETHIOPIA, AGAIN!
Posted in Al Mariam's Commentaries By almariam On August 14, 2021Read below.
The Iceman Cometh but the TPLF Hitman Goeth to Ethiopia.
On August 12, 2021, President Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan tweeted “The President has asked Special Envoy Feltman to return to Ethiopia at this critical moment. We call on all parties to urgently come to the negotiating table.”
On August 12, 2021, Samantha Power retweeted, “There is no military solution to this conflict. Humanitarian needs are already dire but they will get much worse unless all parties agree to dialogue & ending hostilities.”
On August 12, 2021, the State Department announced, “U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Jeffrey Feltman will travel to Djibouti, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates from August 15 to August 24.”
On August 12, 2021, I retweeted Sullivan and Power. “Ooh wee! Somebody is hitting panic button. Not a pip for 2 mos from Jake when TPLF deployed child soldiers, massacred hundreds in Afar and Amhara regions. TPL-Feltman on white horse to save the day. Ha! Let TPLF negotiate on battlefield. Let’s keep Ethiopia great nation, always.”
It all goes back to April 23, 2021, when Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Feltman was named “Special Envoy” to lead an international diplomatic effort to address the interlinked political, security, and humanitarian crises in the Horn of Africa.”
Before the ink was dry on his appointment paper, Feltman came out with guns blazing.
On April 24, 2021, a day after his appointment, Feltman lobbed a condemnatory declaration: “Ethiopia has brushed aside African Union mediation efforts and subregional organizations that cover the Horn of Africa, the IGAD, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development as authoritarian leaders in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia draw closer at the expense of the wider collective.”
On April 26, 2021, days before he left for Ethiopia, Feltman forewarned Foreign Policy, “If the tensions in Ethiopia would result in a widespread civil conflict that goes beyond Tigray, Syria will look like child’s play by comparison.”
On May 3, 2021, the U.S. State Department announced reiterated Feltman is expected “to lead a sustained diplomatic effort to address the interlinked political, security, and humanitarian crises in the Horn of Africa.”
In my May 2, 2021 commentary “Susan Rice’s Revenge and Last Hurrah: Jeffrey TPLFeltman (Hitman) Is Itching for a Fight in Ethiopia/Horn of Africa!”, I demonstrated Feltman’s real mission as Susan Rice’s “special stooge” (“envoy”) to the Horn of Africa is to change and take control of the narrative and to bully and intimidate the leaders and peoples of the Horn of Africa.”
In my May 8, 2021 commentary, “What is an “Ugly American Diplomat” Doing in Beautiful Ethiopia?”, I argued Feltman believes he is “going to read the riot act to Ethiopia’s “authoritarian” leaders and bring them down to their knees begging, ‘Uncle Sam Feltman, massuh, boss, have mercy on us! We is poor African savages. We’ll do as you say, massuh!’”
On May 14, 2021, following Feltman’s visit the State Department announced, “The United States will work with our international allies and partners to secure a ceasefire, end this brutal conflict, provide the life-saving assistance that is so urgently needed, and hold those responsible for human rights abuses and violations accountable.”
A Fool’s Errand: Why is Feltman going to Ethiopia now?
The Associated Press quoting a congressional source reported Feltman, in so many words, is going to Ethiopia to kick ass and force the Ethiopian Government to negotiate with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a terror group registered in the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) and Terror Research and Analysis Consortium (TRAC).
Feltman is expected to dress down and whip Ethiopian leaders until they cry out, “Have mercy, Uncle Sam massuh! Uncle Jeff, massuh!”
The congressional source explained:
Suffice it to say the Italian colonial masters came to Ethiopia in 1896 and 1935 to kick ass and found out Ethiopians are the biggest ass kickers in the world.
If the Biden administration wants to intensify its diplomatic, political and economic war on Ethiopia on behalf of the TPLF, then so be it.
The great American revolutionary Thomas Pain wrote, “I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.”
If the Biden administration wants to bring trouble to Ethiopia, let it come in our time so that our children and children’s children will live in peace.
It is said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
The Biden administration, specifically Susan Rice, Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan Samantha Power, etc., before it was even inaugurated has been trashing Ethiopian sovereignty and openly favoring the TPLF terrorist groups and pressuring the Ethiopian Government to enter into “dialogue” and “negotiations” with it.
The Ethiopian Government’s answer has been clear and unambiguous: There will be dialogue or negotiations with the TPLF, a group declared “terrorist” by the Ethiopian parliament, when hell freezes over. To be sure, not until all the TPLF terrorist leaders are locked up behind the gates of hell.
I am not saying Feltman and his bosses are insane by nauseatingly repeating their mantra of “dialogue” and “negotiations” with the TPLF.
What I am saying is Feltman and his bosses simply do not understand Ethiopians or Ethiopia.
Real knowledge of Ethiopia and Ethiopians begins with two simple questions: 1) How did Ethiopians manage to maintain their independence for millennia without foreign domination? 2) “How did Ethiopians manage to keep their country free of white European colonialism when every part of Africa came under colonial imperialist rule after Berlin Conference of 1884 with the portioning of Africa?
I will not take time to answer these questions.
Suffice it to say, there is something called “Ethiopian exceptionalism” that offers a unique perspective on these questions.
If Feltman is sent to make his second-round visit with the delusion that he is going to bring Ethiopia to its knees by barking out orders and threats of sanctions and other punishments, he will surely be disappointed.
The script that runs in the DNA of every patriotic Ethiopian is, “I would rather be free and dead in my grave than live as a Western neocolonial puppet or a slave.”
Exhibit A: Behold the hundreds of thousands of young Ethiopians who have volunteered to fight the TPLF until kingdom come.
A long-forgotten 18th century English clergyman wrote, “Did not the Pope send all the Princes in Christendom upon a Fool’s Errand, to gain the Holy Land, that he might (as he did in their absence) rob them of their territories.”
I am compelled to ask a similar question. “Did not the President of the United States send his Special Envoy upon a Fool’s Errand, to gain the Holy Land of Ghion (reference to present day Ethiopia in Genesis 2:13) that he might breakup and dismember their territories or install neocolonial viceroys for them?”
Speaking truth to Feltman and his bosses
The Biden administration has been treating Ethiopia like dirt months before it formally took office.
In the early hours of November 4, 2020, the TPLF launched an attack on the Ethiopian Northern Command and massacred and tortured thousands of federal soldiers.
The TPLF’s aim was to destroy the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) in a blitzkrieg attack and swiftly take over power.
In less than three weeks, the ENDF and supporting regional forces made mincemeat of the TPLF.
Beginning on November 14 (before the Biden administration took office), Susan Rice, a longtime supporter of the TPLF sounded the alarm the TPLF was going to crash and burn and frantically tweeted asking the Trump administration to exercise “principled leadership” and save the TPLF.
On November 18, 2020, Antony Blinken, later to become Secretary of State, tweeted he was “deeply concerned about the humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia” and demanded “Ethiopian authorities should take urgent steps to end the conflict, enable humanitarian access, and protect civilians.”
On November 24, 2020, Jake Sullivan, later to become National Security Advisor tweeted he is “deeply concerned about the risk of violence against civilians, including potential war crimes.”
For the past 10 months, Susan Rice, Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, Samantha Powers and others have waged proxy propaganda, diplomatic, economic and political war for the TPLF on Ethiopia.
On August 11, 2021, the Ethiopian Government cancelled the unilateral ceasefire it had declared on June 29 against the TPLF.
The TPLF rejected the ceasefire and launched an offensive against neighboring regions killing and looting civilians. The TPLF massacred over 240 civilians in the Afar region alone.
On August 12, 2021, the Biden administration, France and the so-called a human rights organizations began cackling for “dialogue” and “negotiations”.
As Feltman slithers back to Ethiopia, he and his bosses should be aware of certain immutable truths.
TRUTH #1. The people of Ethiopia have lost respect and trust in the Biden administration which they believe to be a brazen neocolonial power pushing its hegemonic power in complete and depraved indifference to the dignity of the Ethiopian people and the sovereignty of Ethiopia. The people of Ethiopia in the country and in the diaspora are absolutely convinced the Biden Administration is hellbent on regime change in Ethiopia and reimpose upon them their TPLF puppet. That ain’t going to happen. Period!
TRUTH #2. The Biden administration must openly and publicly come to terms with the fact that the TPLF is solely and singularly responsible for the current conflict and war in Tigray region. Over the past 9 months, the Biden administration has not issued a word of condemnation against the TPLF for its barbaric acts of aggression against the Ethiopian Northern Command and myriad massacres committed by TPLF forces. Even in the face of fully documented cases of child soldier deployment, a war crime, by the TPLF, the administration has remained silent.
TRUTH #3. The Biden administration, specifically the key decision makers including Susan Rice, Antony Blinken, Samantha Power, Jeffrey Feltman and others simply do not understand Ethiopian history, the Ethiopian character or Ethiopian defiance/determination. They need to ask themselves one simple question: How did Ethiopia, a black African nation, manage to keep its independence from white European colonialism and any other foreign domination for thousands of years? White supremacy does not work on Ethiopians. Period!
TRUTH #4. The Ethiopian people and Government find the Biden administration’s insistence on “dialogue” and “negotiation” with the TPLF terrorists not only preposterously ridiculous but also deeply disrespectful and offensive. Biden’s policy makers should learn from their own history. Did Abraham Lincoln negotiate with the confederate rebels that bombarded Fort Sumter which proved to be the flashpoint for the American Civil War? No, he mobilized 75,000-man militia to suppress the confederate rebels.
Did President George Bush dialogue or negotiate with the leaders of Al Qaeda and Taliban after the 9/11? No, Bush unleashed a land and air war on Afghanistan which lasted 20 years and cost more than $2 trillion and 240,000 lives. Today, the U.S. is scurrying to get out of Afghanistan as the Taliban take a cake walk into the capital Kabul.
The Biden administration is pressuring the Ethiopian Government to negotiate with the equivalent of Al Qaeda, Taliban, Al Shabab and Boko Haram rolled into one. It ain’t happening. Period!
But here is a fact all Ethiopians shall keep uppermost in their minds as the Biden administration pressures for negotiations with the TPLF.
The last time the U.S. insisted a legitimate government negotiate with a terrorist group, that terrorist group used the negotiation process to buy time, organize and strengthen itself and launch a final deadly attack and take over power by sheer military force. That is exactly what happened in Afghanistan.
The Ethiopian Government will not repeat the mistakes the Afghan Government by playing a game of negotiations with the TPLF. It will negotiate with the TPLF in the battlefield in the only language the TPLF understands.
TRUTH #5. The Biden administration must stop its practice of false equivalency between the Ethiopian Government and a terrorist group, the TPLF. The Ethiopian Government and the terrorist TPLF are not on the same level legally or politically. The Ethiopian Government cannot negotiate with a group designated by the Ethiopian Parliament “terrorist” as a matter of law. Period! The Biden’s administration’s nauseating insistence on negotiations and dialogue with the TPLF shows U.S. disingenuousness or outright contempt for Ethiopian sovereignty.
TRUTH # 6. The Biden administration has had nothing but criticism and condemnation for the Ethiopian Government over the past 10 months. The administration has shown no acknowledgement of all the positive things the Ethiopian Government has done to deescalate the conflict and ensure the humanitarian needs of the people of Tigray are met in the shortest possible time. When the Ethiopian Government provided full humanitarian access, the admisnistration demanded “full humanitarian access” and uninspected passage of relief aid to supply weapons to the TPLF. There was no acknowledgment that the Ethiopian Government provided 70 percent of the relief aid to Tigray or is currently undertaking human rights investigations jointly with the UNHCR. No acknowledgement when the Government declared a unilateral ceasefire.
TRUTH # 7. The Biden administration must stop treating Ethiopia as if it is its colony. The imperial attitude of ordering and commanding the Ethiopian Government to negotiate with the TPLF smacks of the old colonial order. In 1991, then Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Herman Cohen staged a “dialogue” and “negotiations” for the TPLF in London and facilitated their swift seizure of power. Susan Rice, Blinken, etc. cannot pull off a repeat of 1991 in 2021. Period!
TRUTH # 8. It is in the Biden administration’s hand to change the course of worsening relations between the U.S. and Ethiopia. The two countries have had bilateral relations as sovereign partners for well over a century. In 1977, a major breach in bilateral relations occurred when the Carter administration failed to deliver military hardware purchased by Ethiopia to fend of Somali aggression. That transformed the geopolitical situation and scaling down of U.S. presence in Ethiopia, close long-standing structures like the United States Information Service (USIS), the Military Advisory and Assistant Group, (MAAG), the Peace Corps and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The threat of imposition of Global Magnitsky sanctions, removal of Ethiopia as a beneficiary of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, blocking Ethiopia from international financial institutions, etc. will merely escalate and worsen the situation.
TRUTH # 9. The Biden administration has awakened a sleeping giant in the consciences of all Ethiopians. It is called “Ethiopiawinet” (Ethiopianity or Ethiopian-ness) or Ethiopian nationalism. They see U.S. interference in the internal affairs of Ethiopia as an existential threat. They see their fight against the TPLF as a fight for the preservation of the territorial integrity and political sovereignty of their country. They see negotiation with the TPLF not only as a return to the last 25 years of TPLF oppression, corruption and abuse of power but also as an affront to their humanity, dignity, sovereignty and Ethiopianity. It is not in the national interest of Ethiopians to negotiate with terrorists. Negotiating with the TPLF for the Ethiopian people simply stated is negotiating for the total dismemberment and destruction of the Ethiopian nation. That ain’t gonna happen. Period!
TRUTH # 10. ETHIOPIANS UNITED WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED!
The Biden administration should understand that Ethiopians united defeated the mighty Italian army in 1896 fighting with bows, arrows, swords and muskets. They defeated the mighty Italian army against in 1941 after a five-year occupation. The administration should not overestimate its powers to crush the will of the Ethiopian people nor underestimate the will of the Ethiopian people to defiantly resist regardless of how long it takes to preserve their nation.
The Biden administration should not repeat in Ethiopia the mistakes of the Nixon administration in Vietnam.
In 1969, Nixon’s National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger said “I refuse to believe that a little fourth-rate power like North Vietnam doesn’t have a breaking point” as he instructed his aides to develop a punitive military strategy that would coerce North Vietnam into negotiating on American terms.
In April 1975, the “fourth-rate power of North Vietnam” overran Saigon as the U.S. scrambled to evacuate Americans from the country.
History has repeated itself today, August 14, 2021.
It is Saigon 1975 in Afghanistan today.
As the Taliban sweep over Afghanistan and isolate Kabul, the capital, the U.S. is sending Marines to airlift Americans and Afghans who supported Americans out of the country.
The reprehensible and wicked Taliban won because they fought following the principle, “Afghans United Will Never be Defeated.”
The Biden administration can impose its sanctions and other punitive actions against Ethiopia and make the lives of the Ethiopian people hard and difficult.
But no amount of sanctions can break the spirit of the Ethiopian people. They are used to hardship and privation.
The ball is in the Biden administration’s court
Does the administration want to change course and deal with Ethiopia fairly and in good will and good faith? Does the administration want the minds of the Ethiopian people to be indelibly imprinted as TPLF protectors and godfathers? Does the administration want to continue the good bilateral relations cultivated over the past 120 years? Or does the administration want to stay the course and bring Ethiopia to its knees and install the TPLF to power?
I hope Special Envoy Feltman will go to Ethiopia with genuine olive branches and good will to reboot Ethio-U.S. relations.
I hate to say it, but I must.
If Feltman is going to Ethiopia to deliver an ultimatum of sanctions, threats, punishments, etc., I am afraid the Ethiopians will tell him to go to HELL, HELL, HELL!
Ethiopians and only Ethiopians will determine their collective destiny. No one else. Period!
ETHIOPIANS UNITED WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED!
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