October 22, 2022
By Sewale Belew – <sewaleb@yahoo.com>
Introduction and Background
In recent Western news and media broadcasts we are consistently dubbed that diplomats in Ethiopia are warning of the likelihood of civilian bloodbath in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray. Yet, these same diplomats did not show any reaction when TPLF continued to steal the Ethiopian wealth and cause havoc in the lives and assets of the Amhara and the Afar regions all along. But let the truth be told that they can attempt to keep us war torn and remain poor via proxy war attempts but they cannot stop us from defending Ethiopia’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
For over two years, there has been civilian blood bath in neighboring regions as the TPLF-rebels continued to occupy, rape and ransack parts of the northern regions country outside Tigray. Now that the liberation skirmishes are finally taking place within Tigray itself; and the rebels are finally on the verge of losing the war and soon to be defeated, it is likely that the war will come to an obvious end soon.
Yet, all of a sudden, there is warning of civilian bloodbath from the Western media in support of TPLF at this eleventh hour of its demise. Clearly, this final ‘Anti-TPLF-Liberation Action’ is being taken just two years too late. Yet, the reaction proves that the West media has never wished Ethiopia to be in peace. That’s why it continues to shamelessly support TPLF, a group officially designated as a terrorist, whose crimes are not hidden to the West all along. All one can say is: Shame on you the Western fake news media the keep on hammering and manipulate proxy war of all kinds at all times.
Tedros Adhanom’s Role in Pushing Proxy war in Northern Ethiopia
Among the Western political ploy against Ethiopia that unilaterally attempted to stop the conflict in the recent past, the USA and the EU intentionally ganged up and kept Tedros Adhanom in office at WHO. Yet they know well that Tedros himself, as one of the key TPLF executives, remains highly accountable for the conflict in Tigray and in the rest of Northern Ethiopia. In fact, as one of the top leaders of this terrorist group, Tedros never uttered any words when the TPLF-rebels controlled the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions of Ethiopia and destroyed many health, educational, administrative and other social and physical infrastructures in the entire North; and continued to openly rape, kill and ambush many innocent civilian citizens. Currently, the government is systemically targeting the TPLF top leadership categorized as terrorists by the Ethiopian parliament; not the civilian population of Tigray as Tedros Adhanom always claims in his comments about the conflict in the Northern parts of the country. To our dismay, Tedros has been abusing his position at WHO to wage clandestine terrorist campaigns and attacks against the standing WHO’s neutrality principle. Amidst all this political ploy, no one is able to actually save TPLF’s skins from its doom now, as it is already collapsing on daily bases.
Hopefully, the Ethiopian government will remove this bandit group shortly and bring ever lasting peace and stability to the Tigray region. Above all, the Tigray people will also become free soon from serving this greedy bandit group haphazardly. As far as we reckon the situation on the ground, no outside interference nor proxy war mongering is needed, for as long as Ethiopians are determined to unite and defend peace in the northern regions of the country.
We wonder why the EU and Western political conferrers attempt to constantly scratch where it’s not itching them in the first place? Why do they attempt to fix what’s not broken in Europe or in the West for that matter? As far as we see TPLF and its atrocities, the issue is not IF the war should stop; But whether the offender TPLF will lay its bandits’ arms down and come to the peace talk table. Most of all, TPLF must stop its ever lingering banditos behavior and show its will to surrender to the country’s law enforcement for the atrocities it has been committing since its inception over half a century ago.
The Western media, including CNN and BBC, have never uttered words about the ethnic genocide consistently taking place in Wolega in western Ethiopia. Yet they keep on dubbing about the counter attacks on TPLF simply attempting to escalate this nonsense TPLF-waged war between brothers in Northern Ethiopia. Particularly, the joint orchestration done by the USA and its NATO ally, the EU have consistently been instigating and supporting the war waged by TPLF in Northern Ethiopia. And at the moment the Western medias continue to shade their crocodile tears for TPLF by barking in support of the terrorist TPLF bandits. Whenever they deem that the TPLF bandits push the escalation of the fight into regions outside Tigray the Western media intentionally remains quite; and whenever the government army attempts to push the TPLF bandits into their enclaves in Tigray, they join the bandwagon of TPLY and jointly shade their crocodile tears in sympathy of TPLF fighters. Yet, the rest of Ethiopian population knows well that the political ploy of war is not with TPLF; rather it is with the USA, the EU and other supporters of these two institutions in the West. The only remedy for us Africans is to stand united together so that the proxy war of the West and their ugly interference is halted once and for all. They should be reminded to take hands-off African matters. Leave African matters for Africans to face them.
It is a well-known fact that TPLF ruled the Tigray people for more than three decades; yet the people of Tigray haven’t benefited from its iron-rules in the region. To any observer, the people are still in the yoke of poverty, waiting for the western food aid including the TPLF army. This is purely shameful. TPLF persists in killing and shading the blood of Ethiopians for more than 50 years now; and it must go down for a lasting peace.
As far as TPLF’s arms flexing against Eritrea is concerned, peace has been the standing motto of the Eritrean government. Yet, TPLF has chosen to push its war and destruction against the region instead of living in peach with their kens and Kitts in either side of the border areas. The West has kept on imposing sanctions on Eritrea and by using the TPLF stooges as their litmus paper for their proxy war mongering actions.
TPLF bandits are not fighting for the cause of the Tigray people. Instead, they are buying journalists with the money they stole from the Ethiopian people while in power; simply, to propagate and disseminate their unabated propaganda ploy in support of Western support to continue regional havoc.
The Western Medias reports are usually hearsays about Africa. The truth on the ground is always obscured with Western media and Journalism that gets to its lowest; and this is a gross distortion or misrepresentation of the absolute truth on the ground. Sad to observe that journalism’s ethics are at their lowest to speak of. We believe that the TPLF leadership must bend itself and accept the federal oversight for peace to work and reaching a compromise is the best solution to resolve and remove the ongoing regional skirmishes.
Actually what are proxy wars?
Proxy wars are armed conflicts in which one nation sends resources other than its own military personnel – like weapons, trainers, advisers, surveillance drones, money or even mercenaries – to support another country fighting in a war. This is often done to achieve a political objective, like regime change in the country fighting in a war so that the fighting partner they support comes to power.
Most proxy wars feature a government trying to determine an outcome in another country’s war. In the past, the U.S., for example, supported France with aircraft, vehicles, and weapons in France’s effort to reestablish control of what was then known as Indochina from 1946 to 1954. The Vietnam War started just one year after, in 1955.
Proxy wars allow governments to hurt an adversary without actually declaring war and sending in troops to attack the adversary’s forces.
Of course, not every government has an equal capacity to financially support other wars. This is why relatively powerful governments with global rich nations, like the U.S. the United Kingdom, and NATO usually tend to sponsor proxy war around the globe.
Why are proxy wars taken on by the global rich nations?
Proxy wars became especially useful for the U.S., NATO and other major powers after World War II, because the 1945 United Nations charter outlawed war except in cases of self-defense. They also gained prominence because the U.S. and the Soviet Union each possessed nuclear weapons during the Cold War. That meant any direct clash came with a very large risk of escalating from conventional fighting to a species-ending nuclear war.
In the past, during the cold war period, both the U.S. and Soviet Union sponsored proxy wars in places like Angola, where communism and oil were both factors, and El Salvador, where the rise of communism was also a concern for the U.S., during the 1970s and 1980s. This involvement was a way for each government to hurt the other’s interests without significantly risking further military escalation.
Proxy wars may also help establish a foreign government’s legitimacy. If the U.S. directly supports one side in a smaller country’s civil war, it may look like a bully. But if the U.S. defends its engagement by saying it is trying to oppose major foreign adversaries like the Soviet Union or China, then meddling in a third country’s national and local affairs can look necessary and vital.
After his initial February 2022 assault of Ukraine faltered in March, Putin increased his attacks on Western countries, saying that economic sanctions Western countries approved shortly after the invasion were like a declaration of war on Russia.
Putin says that Russia is fighting both NATO and the U.S. – this could help justify Russia’s losses and maintain domestic and regional support for the Russo-Ukraine war.
Other kinds of proxy wars
There are two other core kinds of proxy wars, both intended to accomplish political goals without risking a country’s own people.
The first kind is providing the US government’s clandestine support to terrorist groups that attack their own sitting governments. The US government’s clandestine support to the TPLF terrorist group in Ethiopia is an example. Iran’s financial and political support of Hezbollah – a Muslim political party and militant group in Lebanon that seeks Israel’s destruction is another example. But while Iran’s use of Hezbollah to attack Israel is by proxy, this wouldn’t exactly count as proxy war. Even though terrorism involves lethal armed violence, it doesn’t rise to the level of war, in terms of loss of life and control of territory, for example.
The second form involves supporting an internationally recognized government engaged an international war. This is a rare occurrence, mainly because wars between different countries are rarer than internal conflicts. For instance, Russia’s 2022 assault on Ukraine is considered as an international war, but NATO and the USA cannot easily risk a direct attack on Russia, since Russia has nuclear weapons and is also a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. Russia is also unlikely to withdraw from Ukraine short of defeat on the battlefield, making Ukraine an ideal proxy client – or, at least, ideal for NATO, but very costly in terms of human life for both Ukraine and Russia. If NATO succeeds in helping Ukraine defeat Russia, powerful governments are likely to see proxy wars as a useful tool. But if Russia escalates to attacking NATO countries in the region directly, or uses nuclear weapons in Ukraine, proxy wars may be replaced by direct confrontation and, by extension, a third world war becomes likely to occur. Let’s hope this doesn’t happen.
Looking at the situation on the ground, it is attested that there are NATO and US army-personnel inside Ukraine claiming to train the Ukrainian defense forces. Russia knows obviously the well-known fact too. In reality, the US and NATO allies attempt to wage their combined proxy war strategy devised to advance invisible, clandestine and provocative engagements in Ukraine. The whole world is watching now this double standard politicking of the NATO and the US-government actions in which they do everything they can to force the UN-member countries to support their actions in Ukraine. They tell the global governments to follow the NATO and US decisions, or else, threaten to take the highway and face sanctions. The US and NATO in Ukraine are engaged in all forms including, but not limited to: taking military actions on the ground, in the sky, and in the nearby seas all along the region bordering the Russo-Ukraine conflict areas. Yet, no matter what the allies will do, Russia is getting much stronger by each action it takes and more experienced with ongoing the war tactics. The war in Ukraine has become a good testing ground for the US and NATO advanced weaponry and accuracy in terms of reviewing how the ammunitions can be effective in real time in future. Amidst all these events since the Russo-Ukraine conflict broke out eight months ago, NATO and the USA elites are observed simply talking the talk and not walking the dangerous dance moves that could stumble them into a serious nukes chaos.
The provocation for Nukes by the Western Powers
Only the cruelest person remains unaffected by war. The one taking place in Ukraine currently is infuriating. How should one understand the needless killing of thousands of persons, the uprooting of millions, the daily cruelty and perversity? This NATO and US meddling and creating proxy havoc was observed in many other countries in the past including the former Yugoslavia, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan.
The Russo-Ukraine war between two countries that, until now, were united by blood, by family and many more affinity reasons to speak of, was mainly steered by NATO and the US directives, simply, to take advantage to expand their tentacles on Russia, Russia’s neighboring former Eastern bloc-countries and on the Russian borders. Many observers believe that Putin’s assertion that his country was being encroached upon by NATO’s intentional and persistent push ultimately include Ukraine into NATO-membership. So, he ultimately started to carry out his deliberate aggression against Ukraine in defense of Russia from NATO’s pre-planned encroachment of the Russian Federation. In defiance of the NATO and USA-led provocation and sanctions, besides carrying out the invasion of Ukraine, simultaneously Putin continued to cut the flow of Russian gas to Europe, deliberately forcing the NATO conditions for a diplomatic engagement with Russia. A strong man with his big ambitions, Vladimir Putin wanted a great deal to fulfill his lifelong dream of retaking the four territories lost after the dissolution of the previous Soviet Union. He decided to recreate the Russian Empire in revenge for the NATO bundles of Unfair sanctions exerted upon Russia. While claiming that Russia and Ukraine were sister nations, Putin swiftly started the systematic ravaging of NATO and the Western world by exerting economic pressure limiting oil, gas and food crops exportation. Although what he has achieved is not a quick victory in Ukraine as initially intended, there came the ultimate result of the war with enormous loss of life and treasure for both Russia and Ukraine that will take generations to recoup.