By- Henok Abebe
America has no any legal ground to send troops to Ethiopia. Under International law, the use of force is allowed based on either self-defense or when the UN Security Council authorizes that the use of force is a necessary means to establish and maintain international peace and security (collective security mechanism; like authorizing NATO to intervene in Libya).
America can’t cite self-defense as a reason to use force against Ethiopia since she has nothing vital which is threatened by Ethiopia. Peremptory self-defense (which isn’t even legal in the eyes of international law) doesn’t work for her either.
With regard to the collective security mechanism, Ethiopia’s situation is not a threat to international peace and security. But, if the UNSC decides that it is a threat to the international order, America should get an affirmative vote or abstention from the Veto Power holders, most importantly from China and Russia. The latter two won’t repeat their mistakes of Libya. That is one of the reasons, despite repeated attempts, why America didn’t get authorization from the UNSC to intervene in Syria. But America preferred the other illegal means in Syria, which is supporting anti-government groups and on the other hand, Russia, Iran, and others continue to support the government. Then Syria is now the battleground of a proxy war.
Apart from the legal grounds, the unilateral intervention of the US into Ethiopia won’t be politically feasible for President Biden. Yesterday, he said American troops shouldn’t die on foreign grounds for anything and he proudly celebrated Veterans Day by claiming this is the first celebration where America isn’t at war after two decades. He has no intention to send troops to a foreign land and that is one of his election promises and as a reason, he ordered a complete withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan. After what he said and did, he won’t stand the political repercussion of sending troops to a foreign soil.
But, as America is doing in Syria, Cuba, Venezuela, and other many more countries, it will continue to support TPLF. The Ethiopian Government should solicit help from Russia and other countries to counter America’s unwarranted help to the terrorist TPLF. And, everyone should stand firm and protect his/her country from being a soil of proxy war and end up like Yemen, Syria, Libya, and others.
#Ethiopia_Shall_Prevail!
