Citing a recent UN resolution that partially lifted a ban on sending arms to Somalia, the Obama Administration has announced a dramatic new influx of military aid to the self-proclaimed Somali government.

President Obama approved the latest arms in a memo to Secretary of State John Kerry, claiming that sending more weapons to them would “strengthen the security of the United States and promote world peace.”

It didn’t work so well in the past. US officials have routinely ignored the UN sanctions to send arms, with a 2009 scheme seeing the State Department sending 80 tons of small arms to the Somali government, only to see those weapons stolen and sold openly in Mogadishu, with opposition factions buying up the US weapons at bargain prices.

US officials say the latest decision to increase arms shipments was “not based on any particular new threat assessment,” and instead seems to simply reflect the administration’s desire to prop up whatever two-bit regimes might conceivably be allies, ensuring they are awash in US weaponry.