‘EVERY OPTION IS ON THE TABLE’: US PREPPING FOR LIBYA-STYLE INTERVENTION IN ETHIOPIA

Amid a bloody civil conflict and increasing great-power competition between the United States and China, there are a number of alarming signs that Ethiopia will become the next Libya⁠—an African nation where the US intervenes militarily under the pretext of stopping an impending genocide…

A considerable military buildup is now underway. Last week, the US military announced it was sending over 1,000 National Guard members to nearby Djibouti. This is on top of the special operations forces already sent in November. Perhaps most notably, a government official told CNN that the aircraft carrier USS Essex⁠—along with two other large amphibious vehicles⁠—was steaming towards the Horn of Africa and standing by for further orders.

For weeks, the drums of war have been growing louder in USA nation’s media. “Ethiopia’s civil war is a problem US troops can help solve,” Admiral James Stavridis, former supreme allied commander of NATO, wrote in Bloomberg and The Washington Post. “Sending peacekeepers to the pivotal nation of East Africa wouldn’t be popular domestically, but may be the only way to stop the conflict,” he added. Meanwhile, former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer argued that the West should establish a “no fly zone” across Ethiopia⁠—a country of 115 million people and twice the size of France.

The State Department is reportedly considering labeling the actions in Ethiopia a “genocide,” a word that would have considerable implications, given NATO’s self-declared “right to protect” doctrine, whereby it claims it has the right to intervene anywhere in the world to stop ethnic cleansing.

Given its bloody record, the talk of a “humanitarian” invasion has many Ethiopians worried. “The US is looking for a pretext for military intervention in Ethiopia. The play books of interventions in Iraq, Syria, Yugoslavia, and Libya are being referred to,” Dr. Berhanu Taye, an Ethiopian physician and member of the Global Ethiopian Advocacy Nexus, told MintPress.

Last week, a number of Western governments (including the US) signed a statement condemning the Ethiopian government for its human rights violations while fighting the TPLF, which they did not censure. The State Department is reportedlyconsidering labeling the actions in Ethiopia a “genocide,” a word that would have considerable implications, given NATO’s self-declared “right to protect” doctrine, whereby it claims it has the right to intervene anywhere in the world to stop ethnic cleansing.