The US State Department recently posted on its website a slew of filthy policy papers on over 45 African countries. But it is one on Eritrea, titled: “Integrated Country Strategy-Eritrea’’ that stands out for the vile, vice, and venom with which the US reiterates its unremitting hostility towards this model country in the Horn of Africa. The paper, purportedly authored by a former Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Eritrea, comes at a time of renewed geo-political interest in the strategic Horn of Africa.
Renewal of hostility toward Eritrea
The policy paper is loosely a declaration of the West’s renewal of historic hostility toward Eritrea. In its rather obnoxious text, the US insolently boasts of the goal to “isolate Eritrea’s regional Influence”, and to “advance American values”. But the most slanderous part is when it avows: “Our primary strategic policy goal is to cultivate Eritrea’s next generation and prepare for a post-Isaias regime”.
The paper then goes on to mockingly observe that “The president is in his late seventies. He will not rule forever”. Were one to respond right away, it would be enough to observe that the current US president is well above 80 years, but is still ruling! But without digressing from the paper’s slanderous proposition, one wonders what it meant. Since when did it become the birthright of the US empire to map the future political trajectory of independent nations?
One would naturally pass over this very slanderous policy paper with a shrug of the shoulders and indeed consider it merely as the rambling of a scoundrel diplomat. After all, what does it matter what rights Americans believe they have over Eritrea, or what they think, write, or say about Eritrea? Did Eritrea ever wave a begging bowl for their aid and patronage? Did Eritrea ever ask for their arms and weapons to defend its borders? Where were they when Eritreans singlehandedly and without any foreign support, fought for 30 years to liberate themselves? Where was such help, when Eritrea needed it the most during the reconstruction period after the war?
If anything, the US imposed sanctions on Eritrea, aiming to cripple its post-independence self-reliance efforts. Its State Department and Media have historically engaged in carping criticism aimed at stirring public unrest for regime change. Predictably, all have failed. What worse can they now do to Eritrea? So, yes, one would ideally pass over such a foolishly pompous policy paper with a wave of the hand. This would be fine, were it not for the fact that the US State Department formally endorsed this paper “for Public Release” on May 5, 2022. In so doing, it effectively certified this policy paper as the US’s official foreign policy on Eritrea.
The paper explicitly reveals how the US has since September 2021 been pursuing a policy of “disciplined confrontation” against Eritrea. And dedicates its remainder to a litany of unfounded accusations against Eritrea’s leadership, slanderous objections to Eritrea’s sovereign rights, and self-entitled posturing to map Eritrea’s political future. It is worth noting that this now formally declared hostile US position was never communicated to Eritrea prior to publishing and officially disseminating this policy paper, according to an Eritrea government communique.
This, of course, is classic US showing a middle finger to established norms of international behavior. The paper espouses a manner of engagement that is uncustomary between civilized nations. But more than that, it flagrantly pitches the US’s renewal of historic hostility toward Eritrea based on lies. It further pitches the US’s messianic complex and self-entitled right to control and subjugate an African region where it considers Eritrea a key obstacle.
The US in no position to accuse Eritrea
Naturally, one would be tempted to answer the lies that the US State Department raises against Eritrea in this flawed policy paper by looking at America’s domestic affairs. Beyond that, one could even discuss its geopolitical decline as a world economic and political leader. For example, one would correctly observe that although Eritrea has been under sanctions for the last two decades, the country has survived and thrived on its own natural strength, material, and human endowments. Today, it has some of the best health, literacy, and economic indicators in Africa.
The US, meanwhile has been scavenging and pillaging foreign nations to service the gluttonous appetite of its capitalist class. The loot from its war tours across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa’s mineral-rich countries, is the only reason this prairie country survives. Were it left to its own resources, its crushing fall would be sooner. Elsewhere, one would correctly observe that while Eritrean cities are among the safest in Africa, US cities are among the unsafest. Its slums resemble zombie enclaves with horrifying scenes of drugged young people. And its schools are warzones where unhinged teens roam trotting guns and killing for fun.
Others would even want to observe America’s growing isolation as countries such as China and Russia forge alliances. Or point out how China’s soft power diplomacy is relegating the US to the role of a barking but toothless bystander in international affairs. Then of course there is the shame of Its human rights record. Which other country compares? You only have to look at Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and others for evidence of what the Americans leave in their worldwide war tours.
Correcting the Lies and accusations
The above and many other consequential observations would convincingly prove how Eritrea stands in better regard compared to its chief accuser. But it is not our intention to delve into such a discussion. Rather we hereafter address the falsehoods that the policy paper spews, as calmly and truthfully as possible. This clarification may not influence the warmongering cliques in Washington, but it should clear any doubts in the minds of fellow Africans.
The Policy paper makes at least 7 false accusations within the remit of its mission priorities.
Maligning Eritrean Media Independence
The paper makes the preposterous claim that only Embassy Asmara’s diplomatic reporting is a reliable source of information and context on Eritrea for U.S. policymakers. “Eritrea”, it goes on to claim, “has no independent media”. Whatever the paper means by ‘independent media’, is certainly open for debate. But if by ‘independent’ media, the paper implies media that facilitates subversive actions against the state under the guise of media freedoms, then yes, no such media exists in Eritrea.
But if it means balanced media that seeks to inform, rather than project foreign interests to destabilize the country, such media is available, news sources are plural, and genuine journalistic activity is unhindered. Even foreign media that commit to following journalistic ethics are allowed and currently operate. The government issues visas to international journalists whenever they request.
Only as recently as 2015, a number of journalists, including from the BBC, were in Eritrea unhindered. It is, therefore, disingenuous to claim a lack of media freedom in Eritrea. By its own admission, the document agrees that “Voice of America is the only international media in the country”. Finally, it concludes that Eritrea “tightly controls information that most other countries would make publicly available”, but cites no examples. We can assume it was written to fill space.
Misrepresenting Eritrea’s National Service program
The paper also misrepresents Eritrea’s model National Service Program, which requires all able-bodied Eritreans to serve in the military or other national service roles for some period. While this program has been feted for building for Eritrea a strong and disciplined workforce that supports Eritrea’s development efforts, the US apparently thinks it is “forced labor”. Not that this is a surprise, coming from a country that teaches its youth to wear frock coats, encourages its daughters to open fan-only accounts, and cheers its sons to wear skirts. But it certainly shows a deliberate attempt at undermining a policy that is the bedrock of Eritrea’s self-reliance efforts.
The policy paper therefore echoes America’s long-standing scheme to destroy Eritrea’s future, by targeting its youth. It is notable that the US and its allies have in recent decades been systematically granting blanket asylum in their countries to lure Eritrean youth. This is a vicious policy of “strategic depopulation” whose vile objective is to wean Eritrea’s youth from the country’s National Service and the arduous tasks of nation-building, necessary to keep their country independent and self-reliant.
Blackmailing Eritrea’s Human rights record
The policy document also waxes eloquent on human rights to vilify Eritrea in the most wicked terms. It declares Eritrea as having “one of Africa’s worst human rights records”, and describes Eritrea’s government as “repressive and totalitarian”. But this is a long-discredited ploy that the US often resorts to in order to claim the moral high ground and cloak its nefarious and illicit policies and acts of destabilizing sovereign nations in humanitarian garb.
If anything, the US is the world’s worst human rights offender. Its human rights are displayed by racial discrimination against black people. And in the millions of orphaned Afghan, Libyan, and Iraqi children, and others in places where the US went on war tours!
Concern for Eritrea’s religious freedoms
The paper reiterates America’s designation of Eritrea as a “Country of Particular Concern for international religious freedom”. And somewhere claims that religious freedom is limited. The impression is that Eritrea has restrictions on religious freedoms.
But of course, this is hardly true. Eritrea is a highly pious country of religious pluralism with centuries-old Abrahamic faiths that live in exemplary co-existence and harmony. To suggest that the country would suppress such religious faiths, by which act it would be suppressing its historic cultural roots, is absurd.
Lamenting over Eritrea’s International relations
The document also decries Eritrea’s legitimate ties with China (and to some extent, Russia) and further laments Eritrea’s voting patterns “on most contested issues” in the UN General Assembly that do not kowtow US positions. In this blanket context, it alludes to Eritrea’s accession to the “Belt and Road Initiative”, its hosting of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in January 2022, China’s maintenance of a relatively large Embassy, and even some scholarships that China offers to Eritrean students’.
This carping is too petty to merit a serious response, as it is only a laughable projection of the US’s arrogance. So without delving deep, it is enough to observe that Eritrea is not a client or vassal State of the US. It has every right, and obligation to cultivate ties with the international community based on mutual respect, common benefits, and interests. These are the normative parameters on which any sovereign nation should proudly anchor its regional and international policies, including the ties of cooperation and friendship with others.
Berating Eritrea’s stabilizing role in the Horn of Africa
The policy document further berates Eritrea’s regional role, depicting it as a “force of destabilization in the Horn of Africa”. In a typical self-aggrandizing fashion, it then boasts that: “The Embassy is advancing a broader policy of regime isolation and financial sanctions to limit its ability to perpetuate the conflict in northern Ethiopia”.
Again, this presumption is wrong and contravenes the realities on the ground. If anything, the US is an active actor in the insecurity dynamics within the Horn of Africa. Indeed, regarding the 2020 – 2022 war in northern Ethiopia, The US was not only privy to but also complicit in its initiation and conduct. Its footprints are also visible in the destabilizing conflict that has and still continues to wreak havoc in Somalia.
Thus, the claim that Eritrea is a destabilizing force in the Horn of Africa is preposterous. On the contrary, it is a stabilizing force. But, why then blame Eritrea? Because Eritrea remains the only country in the Horn of Africa that refuses to take orders from Washington.
Eritrea’s independent cooperation with other superpower countries such as China has watered down the US’s self-entitlement. This has led to unfounded fears, as the document further speculates, that “an Eritrea strategically aligned with China… could deny the United States access to a large part of the most valuable shipping route in the world and increase China’s foothold in the Horn of Africa”.
This speculative assertion is utterly false, and reeks of the US self-entitled attitude and demands for Eritrea to subordinate its national interests and sacrifice its legitimate rights on the altar of US global hegemony. Otherwise, Eritrea’s responsible conduct in safeguarding maritime traffic to all nations as a littoral State in the Red Sea is a matter of impeccable track record.
Claiming responsibility for Eritrea’s political future
The crowning absurdity of this policy document is also the final priority under its Mission priorities, titled: “Prepare for the post-Isaias era.” The document hereunder espouses its so-called primary strategic policy goal “to cultivate Eritrea’s next generation and prepare for a post-Isaias era”. It claims to already be doing so by “laying the groundwork for better relations in the post-Isaias era by building ties with the Eritrean people”.
This appears to be a rather orchestrated stunt to present before the US public the lie that President Isaias does not represent the interests of the Eritrean people. So, with his supposed exit, the US problem in Eritrea will apparently be solved. “The president is in his late seventies,” the document purrs, “He will not rule forever”. Of course, no one can rule forever. But does the US think that it can manipulate fate by prophesying doom – from its shrines- for a leader so favored?
The US should re-think its strategy
The US obviously does not like Eritrea’s stabilizing role in the geo-strategic Horn of Africa. Or that Eritrea is exercising its sovereign right to self-determination, and to relate with foreign nations such as China and Russia on the basis of mutual respect, and common benefits and interests.
Beyond Eritrean borders to the Horn of Africa region, and elsewhere, they dread the prospect of other African countries emulating Eritrea’s exemplary self-reliance policy – one for which Eritrea is indeed, already paying a price for daring Africa to become self-reliant. Still, the US cannot just wish away Eritrea’s stabilizing role in the Horn of Africa. Or its pioneer role in reawakening the African continent to become truly independent.
So regardless of how one sees it, the US State Department, if at all, it cares about regional peace and stability in the Horn of Africa, and by extension, Africa, should re-think its strategy towards Eritrea. Otherwise, everything about it so far reeks of renewed hostility rather than strategic diplomacy.
It should be rescinded as a matter of goodwill and common sense. Hostility toward Eritrea is ill-advised, and will only lead to further isolation of the US from the geo-strategic Horn of Africa. It is time the US returns to the old, tested, and accepted practices of international courtesy and good manners, and start treating Eritrea in the way normal among civilized nations.
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