On Tuesday, June 16, The Guardian published a story that will probably never make it “above-the-fold” in America’s increasingly timid and understaffed mainstream media.

The headline: “Killed walking home from school: why did Somali children become targets of US drone strikes?”
Subhead: “Six months ago, at least 12 people, including eight children, died during a US attack. The US has never admitted the civilian deaths.”

On November 15 of last year, a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone launched from Camp Simba military base in Kenya dropped its horrific load of Hellfire missiles on Abdullahi Mohamed Abo Sheikh Ali’s home reducing it to rubble. His grandfather Mohamed, according to the Guardian, rushed to scene. Here is what he found: “Clothes and books were scattered on the ground, but I couldn’t focus on them. I was in shock, standing before the bodies of my grandchildren. They were ripped to pieces.”

The bodies included his pregnant daughter-in-law Safiyo Hassan Abukar, her ten-year-old son Abdifatah and seven-year-old Abdinasir. And Hussein and Abdurahman ages six and four respectively.

Names and ages are important when reporting these deaths. Juxtapose your family’s names and ages, your children, your parents and grandparents, and perhaps then these casualties might seem more tangible, the grief more intense.

On that fateful day there were 15 explosions in the town of Jamaame and 18 homes were destroyed. A school obliterated. Marian Haji Abdi Guled said, “All my children were lying on the ground covered in blood. When I tried to tend to them, shells began falling everywhere. Every direction you turned, there were shells and missiles raining everywhere.”

Guardian: “Despite the scale, no investigation appears to have been launched into the attack on Jamaame six months ago. No one has been held accountable for the deaths – the US refused to admit that a single civilian died in the town that day.”

The current United States foreign policy rule of thumb: never admit fault. Never take responsibility. Never admit it even happened. “No stupid rules of engagement,” famously boasted Pete Hegseth, Secretary of the Indefensible.

Based on the hateful history toward people of color under President Donald Trump and his evil wingmen Pete Hegseth and Herr Steven Miller, I can easily answer the Guardian’s question, “Why did Somali children become targets of US drone strikes?”

Answer: Because the Trump administration does not see children of color—especially Muslim children—as human beings. (Note: we also saw this same disregard in the recently failed illegal war with Iran when our Tomahawk missiles killed 120 school children last February at the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, Iran. An “investigation” is underway by the Pentagon. Cold comfort for the grieving families.)

If you need proof of this racism toward African Muslims here are just a few quotes from the president of the “free” world:

•Trump, December 2, 2025: “We could go one way or the other, and we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country. She’s [Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Somali] garbage. Her friends are garbage. These aren’t people who work. These aren’t people who say, ‘Let’s go, come on, let’s make this place great.’”

•Trump, December 10, 2025: “‘Why is it we only take people from shithole countries, right? We always take people from Somalia, places that are a disaster, right. Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime. The only thing they’re good at is going after ships.”

•Trump, January 20, 2026: “Somalia is not even a country. They don’t have anything that resembles a country.”

•Trump, March 26, 2026: “These people come from a crooked country, disgusting country, one of the worst countries in the world…They come to our country – low IQs – and they rob us blind. Stupid people, and they rob us blind.”

The official reason for our mucking around in the Horn of Africa is to suppress the Islamic terrorist group al-Shabaab that is based in Somalia. This extremist gang has wreaked havoc around Africa, including a horrific massacre and siege at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi in 2013. Sixty-seven people were killed and hundreds injured.

But why kill farmers, women and children in a farming community? Where is the evidence that al-Shabaab was in Jamaame? Who gave the orders to attack this agrarian community? Here’s what one witness said:

“There was no al-Shabaab presence in our town, only women, children and elders. Before the airstrikes, the situation in Jamaame was calm and peaceful,” says Marian Haji Abdi Guled.       

Buruji adds: “The only people [here] are livestock herders and farmers.” Guardian.

POSTSCRIPT

Who are these military men and women who direct this terror as if playing video games from some distant bunker such as their windowless hidey-hole in Djibouti? Are we supposed to fawn over them and “thank them for their service”? Hold a parade for them? Trot them out as heroes at halftime at football games?

And just what is this service? Killing, injuring and terrorizing innocent children while gulping a Monster Drink? Possibly following illegal orders knowing there will never be legal repercussions? This service has nothing to do with protecting our interests in Somalia, a poor country with an unstable government that hardly poses a threat to our way of life. This service is not about ensuring our vanishing freedoms here in the United States. No, this service is simply My Lai-style butchery from the skies without warning and without consequence.

Guardian: “Testimony indicates that it is highly probable the US drone teams knew children were in the vicinity.”

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