US troops for the Ethiopia/Eritrea border.

[alfredo]

This was passed on from an old hand in the region. He said somewhere around 50,000 US troops will be patrolling the disputed border region between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Some of the troops thinking they are going home after Iraq are going to Ethiopia.

I lived there (Eritrea) for 3 years and I would recommend we not get involved. The Eritreans are some of the toughest fighters in the world. They are smart and they are united.

Here's an article by Michela Wrong. She's one of the good guys. She has contact with our group of old Eritrean (Kagnew) vets and wrote a whole chapter about us in her book on Eritrea. the book: http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/ethiopia/eritrea.htm Highly recommended by us Kagnew veterans. this book will give you an idea of what we would be up against.


Here's Wrong's article from Slate Magazine.
http://www.slate.com/id/2178793/


America's Latest African Blunder
HOW AN ABOUT-FACE ON A BOUNDARY ISSUE COULD DESTABILIZE AN ENTIRE REGION.
By Michela Wrong
Posted Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007, at 5:38 PM ET

John Bolton
Sometimes, authors of tell-all memoirs reveal even more than they realize. One such revelation comes on Page 347 of John Bolton's Surrender Is Not an Option, published earlier this month. I doubt most reviewers noticed the line as they leafed through the book in search of the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations' famous putdowns. But for anyone who follows events in the Horn of Africa, it had all the impact of a small explosion.

Bolton, whose contempt for the United Nations is only matched by his exasperation with the State Department, recounts the position Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer adopted in 2006 toward the "final and binding" ruling an international commission had reached over the Eritrean-Ethiopian border, the cause of a war that claimed some 90,000 lives.

"For reasons I never understood," writes Bolton, "Frazer reversed course, and asked in early February to reopen the 2002 decision, which she had concluded was wrong, and award a major piece of disputed territory to Ethiopia. I was at a loss how to explain that to the Security Council, so I didn't."

[Joanne98]

1. Why?

[alfredo]

2. Look at a map.

[TwilightGardener]

3. Is there oil there?

[IDemo]

4. Not enough to screw with

"proven" reserves:

Eritrea - 0 bbl
Ethiopia - 428,000 bbl (Jan 2005) -- or about two percent of one day's worth of US consumption

[alfredo]

5. Ethiopia and Djibouti are at a pinch point for the Red Sea.

Control that area (the horn of Africa), control the flow of oil through the Red Sea. When Poppy Bush said that region was of "no strategic importance" he was lying.

[alfredo]

6. I think there has been some off shore exploration, but I

don't know the status.

[IDemo]

8. Not looking real good

Hydrocarbon exploration , primarily offshore in the Red Sea, began in the 1960's when Eritrea was still federated with Ethiopia. In 1995, Eritrea signed a production sharing contract (PSC) with U.S.-based Anadarko Petroleum (Anadarko) for the offshore Zula Block. Anadarko signed a second PSC for the offshore Edd Block, located south of the Zula Block, in September 1997. Anadarko announced, in December 1997, that it had reached an agreement with ENI/Agip (Agip) to swap interests in exploration acreage. Anadarko received a 25% interest in a Tunisian block operated by Agip, and Agip received a 30% share in the 6.7-million acre Zula Block and 30% interest in the Edd Block. Burlington Resources, a U.S.-based independent, later joined the consortium by acquiring a 20% interest in both acreages. Anadarko's first two exploration wells, both drilled on the Zula Block, were unsuccessful. In January 1999, a third dry well, Edd-1 on the Edd Block, was drilled. Citing the disappointing exploration results, Anadarko and its partners ceased exploration activities and relinquished their rights to the offshore blocks.

[alfredo]

10. They had gold and silver. They used to be the hashish capital of

the world, but that was some time ago.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

7. Strategic interests

and geopolitical positioning.

K&R

[Robbien]

9. Thanks for the post. I've been following the articles on this for a while

boy are we on the wrong side since it appears we are backing Ethiopia while Ethiopia is the one who is breaking the boarder treaty.

I assume our support is payback for Ethiopia being the proxy in our invasion of Somalia.

And while I hate hate hate Bolton, in this one instance he is right. Jendayi Frazer is dangerous.

[alfredo]

11. Ethiopia allowed us to have a listening post in Asmara. That's

where I lived and worked.

[Robbien]

12. I Didn't Do It For You. The Guardian's review of the book

and that chapter

Another fascinating chapter, perhaps all the more relevant following America's astonishment after 9/11 that there were people out there who didn't love it, is the one that describes the lifestyle enjoyed by the GIs in Agnew Base in Eritrea, the US's premier listening post through the first half of the cold war. Housing 4,000 US troops and their families, the camp boasted picket fences and front lawns, a 10-lane bowling alley, swimming pool, craft shop, library, and, of course, bars, where the majority of the young GIs spent their energies whoring and drinking.

Outside the camp Ethiopian troops, who had been trained by the US and Israel, were busy massacring their way across Eritrea. In 1967 alone 300 settlements were burnt and hundreds of people killed. The GIs were sealed inside their bubble with increasing regularity in an attempt to isolate themselves from the atrocities - and, with the distractions to hand, most managed to ignore what was going on. But it was hard to ignore the rotting bodies hanging from the lamp-posts, and camp commanders had to issue warnings about listening to "rumours".

http://books.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5119131-99937,00.html

Interesting. A book that is definitely going on my reading list.

It is hard getting an idea of what Eritrea is really about without the US filter. Apartheid seems like the norm for Eritrea for the entire century.

[alfredo]

13. the shit was just starting to hit the fan when I left. I remember

the drought was beginning, the ELF had attacked the water utility and electrical grid. Yeah, it was getting a bit tense.