i heard recently that during the Clinton administration, we were doing some kind of military or spy action in the Sudan-i hear numbers of 100 thousand deaths. basically, whenever i hear anything about it’s always overheard from another room, just as i’m going into work, etc…i try to avoid news programs as often as possible unless it’s some breaking cataclysm, so, since i rarely hear of it i wonder if we really were doing something over there or if it is just third world anti-US/pbs propaganda. So, is there an official US line on what we are/were doing there? If so, what is it?
I assume you mean the missile strike on a Sudanese pharmaceutical factory in 1998. On August 20, 1998, the US launched a cruise missile at a pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum (along with several sites in Afghanistan suspected of being al-Qaeda training camps). This was in response to the August 7, 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, since it was believed that the sites struck were affiliated with al-Qaeda or related groups involved with the the bombings. Sudan had hosted bin Laden until 1996, when he was expelled under pressure from the US and Saudi Arabia.
The strike in Sudan was controversial because there was a dispute about whether it was a chemical weapons facility, as the Clinton Administration claimed, or just a regular medicine factory, as critics on both the Right and Left argued.
According to the article, there were 21 deaths and 37 injuries total (21/30 in Afghanistan and 0/7 in Khartoum). I thought 100,000 sounded a little high.
Hundreds of thousands of deaths makes me wonder if you’re not talking about Somalia rather than Sudan. There was a famine in Somaila in which perhaps 300,000 to 500,000 Somalis died. The Clinton administration sent in troops at first to guarantee the safety of relief workers. Later the objective evolved to include taking on some Somali warlords who were interfering with relief efforts. The result was a fiasco. Did you see the movie Blackhawk Down? Do a Google search for “Operation Restore Hope” to find out more.
well, i don’t think that i should be condemned for being off by a measly 50000%, do you?
(teehee)
thanks for info
if my math is correct, that should be 500000%, not 50000%. But, i don’t think that i should be condemned for a measly…
There’s been a nasty civil war in the Sudan for about 20 years between the Muslim north and the non-Muslim (mostly tribal religions) south, so that 100,000 figure might have come out of that. See the Feb. 2003 National Geographic for a good picture of this basketcase of a country. The US has basically ignored this war (despite the fact that Sudan does have oil, especially in the south), the “aspirin” plant strike had nothing to do with it. Another lovely case of European colonial boundaries grouping together people who would rather not live together.
Actually Sudan is an odd case in that regard. It wasn’t originally a creation of European imperialism, but rather of Egyptian imperialism. It was conquered in pieces starting with Muhammed Ali ( 1805-1848 ) and culminating with Khedive Isma’il ( 1863-1879 ) as part of a general quest to establish Egypt as an strong, independant power.
It broke away under the Mahdi ( a messianic Muslim theocrat ) in 1881 during the general chaos that surrounded the British assumption of power in Egypt following Pasha Arabi’s revolt and remained independant ( dominated by the Muslim north then, as now ) until reconquered by Britain in 1898.
- Tamerlane