5 December 1933—The 21st Amendment ends the era of Prohibition in the United States.

Proposed on December 18, 1917, ratified on January 16, 1919, and effective January 16, 1920, the 18th Amendment, popularly known as the “Volstead Act,” passed Congress over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto on October 28, 1919, both establishing a legal definition of intoxicating liquor and declaring it contraband.

Detroit police inspecting equipment found in a clandestine underground brewery during the prohibition era.

During the Great Depression, Prohibition became increasingly unpopular, and popular sentiment put pressure on Congress to repeal the law.  One of the major reasons for Prohibition’s unpopularity was the spike in crime that resulted.  During the “Roaring Twenties,” gaining control over smuggling operations and speakeasies—often through intimidation and violence—made millions of dollars for Chicago’s notorious gangland leader, Al Capone and his rival, Bugs Moran.  Capone’s rise to power and the resulting spike in violent crime and police and government corruption in the city led to the rise of “The Untouchables,” a crack team of Prohibition enforcers, led by U.S. Treasury officer Elliot Ness, who gained fame both for their scruples and their effectiveness in fighting organized crime.

On March 23, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt amended the Volstead Act with the Cullen-Harrison Act, allowing the sale of some kinds of alcohol, and on December 5, 1933, Congress officially repealed the 18th Amendment with the 21st Amendment.

Now

5 December 2008—Today’s Wall Street Journal features an editorial by Ethan A. Nadelmann urging the legalization of drugs in the United States, noting the failures of the war on drugs in the U.S.:

500,000 people incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails for nonviolent drug-law violations; 1.8 million drug arrests last year; tens of billions of taxpayer dollars expended annually to fund a drug war that 76% of Americans say has failed; millions now marked for life as former drug felons; many thousands dying each year from drug overdoses that have more to do with prohibitionist policies than the drugs themselves, and tens of thousands more needlessly infected with AIDS and Hepatitis C because those same policies undermine and block responsible public-health policies

Nadelmann also cites the problems of prohibition abroad, urging his readers to think about Afghanistan, Mexico, and Latin America, “where prohibition-related crime, violence and corruption undermine civil authority and public safety, and mindless drug eradication campaigns wreak environmental havoc.”

On this historic day, it is worth thinking about the effects of prohibition policies on the world in general and the U.S. in particular.  Do prohibition policies do more harm than good?  History holds a mirror up to the present.  This humble blogger does not pretend to hold the answer to this debate, but I urge everyone who reads this to think about this issue with an open mind and an eye to what history has already shown us… preferably over a pint.

Wikipedia – Prohibition in the United States

- “Soomaaliyeey toosoo” (“Somalia, Wake Up”)

Then

4 December 1992—U.S. President George H. W. Bush ordered U.S. troops into Somalia as part of Operation Restore Hope, a mission designed to help restore order and provide humanitarian aid to those affected by drought, floods, famine, and conflict during the Somali Civil War.

The day before, the United Nations Security Council had adopted Resolution 794, leading the way to the creation of the Unified Task Force (UNITAF), a U.S.-led, UN-sanctioned multinational task force designed to carry out Resolution 794 in Somalia, using ”all necessary means” to guarantee the delivery of humanitarian aid in accordance with Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, which specifies that the UNSC “may take such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security” if more diplomatic methods should fail.

About 67% of UNITAF’s personnel were American troops, but Australia, Belgium, Botswana, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, India, the Republic of Ireland, Italy, Kuwait, Morocco, Ne Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and Zimbabwe contributed to UNITAF’s strength.  The operation was largely considered a success, since UNITAF’s mission had been to provide humanitarian aid.

Unfortunately, despite the willingness of some Somali factions to negotiate at the Conference on National Reconciliation in Somalia and the resulting Addis Ababa Agreement, the civil war continued.  The UN finally withdrew in 1995.

Founded in October 2004 after a a two-year peace process led by the Government of Kenya and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and Transitional Federal Institutions (TFIs) of Somalia are running out of time to fulfill the Transitional Federal Charter, which includes a five-year deadline for the establishment of a new Somali constitution, a move toward a representative government, and the establishment of national elections in Somalia.

Now

4 December 2008—The BBC News service reports today that Somalia is approaching a “total famine.”  The Red Cross warns that the increasing problem of piracy off Somalia’s coast—there have been nearly 100 attacks this year—is distracting world officials from the very real problem of widespread famine.  The piracy problem and humanitarian disaster are both linked to the lack of a stable central government in Somalia.  The TFG faces opposition from extremist militias, but continues to work with Somali stakeholders and international donors to establish national elections in 2009.

And just to prove that humanity is remarkably resilient, the Associated Press reports that 20 young doctors, 12 men and eight women, graduated today in Mogadishu, the Somali capital and one of the world’s most violent cities.

CIA – The World Factbook — Somalia
Timeline of Operation Restore Hope and Operation Continue Hope
Wikipedia – Somalia
Wikipedia – Unified Task Force
]]> http://historyfinder.wordpress.com/2008/12/04/4-december-1992-operation-restore-hope/feed/ 0 The Historyfinder General Location of Somalia http://historyfinder.wordpress.com/2008/12/04/the-historyfinder-general/ http://historyfinder.wordpress.com/2008/12/04/the-historyfinder-general/#comments Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:00:34 +0000 historyfinder http://historyfinder.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/who-or-what-is-the-historyfinder-general/ ]]> The Historyfinder General is a professional historian who seeks to promote the study of history as a key to understanding the present. This blog, updated every weekday, explains one event that occurred on that date in history (e.g. the end of Prohibition on 5 December 1933) and relates it to today’s headlines.