US hates terror, but why is it coddling Shabaab?

Armed Al Shabaab fighters on pick-up trucks prepare to travel into the city, just outside Mogadishu, Somalia. [File, Standard]

The United States is a wonderful country that thrives on contradictions. It tops the world on economy, technology, military hardware and propaganda. Its ideals, however, flounder upon practice because its people excel in doublespeak. While not all are guilty of doublespeak, American foreign policy mandarins tend to shine in negating stated ideals. For instance, Washington claims to fight terrorism but former American officials have come out coddling the Al Shabaab.

This is not new reality. The US was founded on contradictions of stated ideals. Thomas Jefferson beautifully wrote about all men being equal although he limited that equality to white men of means. He also owned slaves and increased the population with at least one female slave. The 1787 US constitution sanctioned slavery and slave trade. The concocted “Manifest Destiny” to spread Jacksonian democracy for white men robbed Mexico of territories from California to Texas. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln wished he could dispatch free blacks outside the US. Woodrow Wilson talked of teaching Latin Americans how to elect “good men”.