Here we go again... Somalis Ask for Foreign Help as Fighting Spreads

[Space Tycoon]

Somalis Ask for Foreign Help as Fighting Spreads
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/13/AR2006051300899.html)

Reuters
Sunday, May 14, 2006; Page A22


MOGADISHU, Somalia, May 13 -- Mortars, machine guns and rockets pounded Mogadishu on Saturday in fighting between militias that has killed at least 144 people in the past seven days and spread quickly across the city.

The interim government, which has been unable to assert authority in the nation of 10 million, called for foreign intervention to end the deadliest clashes in years in the capital.

At least 11 civilians were killed overnight and early Saturday as gunmen from a powerful alliance of secular warlords engaged in close-range firefights and artillery duels with militiamen backed by the city's influential Islamic courts....






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[Space Tycoon]

Let's give Bush a break this time. Clinton deserves some of the blame as well...

War on terror's new front line: Somalia (http://www.sundayherald.com/55669)

TO say Somalia, where conflict between warlords and al-Qaeda-backed jihadists is claiming hundreds of lives, is in a shambles is the grossest of understatements.
The country of seven million Sunni Muslims has no banks and has been without a government since 1991, when President Siad Barré, a cold war dictator puppet loyal first to the Soviet bloc and then the West, was overthrown.

Former allies fell upon one another and sliced up the country – in the Horn of Africa – along highly complex clan and subclan fault lines. A ruinous man-made famine followed. Skilled and wealthy Somalis began deserting the country and there are now perhaps three million refugees outside the country, living mainly in Kenya, Yemen and Britain.

Today truckloads packed with gun- toting young militiamen, high on drugs and loyal to a variety of godfathers, roam the land in a new phase of Somalia’s tragedy. There are widespread reports in Washington that President George W Bush has issued an executive order to arm a local “anti-terrorist alliance”, led by three veteran warlords. The Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter- Terrorism (ARPCT) was formed on February 18 this year to fight the increasingly powerful al-Qaeda-backed Islamic courts’ militias, known as the United Islamic Courts....






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[tstone]

Well...it was Bush the first who originally sent the troops to Somalia. Clinton just got handed the ball. And changed the mission from peacekeeping to chasing down warlords.

[Space Tycoon]

You know, you're right. I was thinking of that today... it's easy to forget these things.

All these presidents get to be a blur after awhile.... :smirks:




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[wilt-]

Didn't Eric Bana bugger everything up over there a few years back??

[Asonokirk V 2.0]

Do this. IGNORE them. It is time we start expecting others to solve their own problems without input from us. They won't ever change anything substantially if they keep getting "bailed out" in the proverbial sense. Its like, Dudes, you've got to get your shit together as we can't do it for you.

[Bokchoi Cowboy]

Do this. IGNORE them. It is time we start expecting others to solve their own problems without input from us. They won't ever change anything substantially if they keep getting "bailed out" in the proverbial sense. Its like, Dudes, you've got to get your shit together as we can't do it for you.


Do these guys remind anyone else of the French?



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[DaForce]

Do this. IGNORE them. It is time we start expecting others to solve their own problems without input from us. They won't ever change anything substantially if they keep getting "bailed out" in the proverbial sense. Its like, Dudes, you've got to get your shit together as we can't do it for you.


We should have told the Iraqis that too, but then there was that whole oil thing, and the setting up of a base in the middle of the Middle East. :smirk:

[omicron]

I talked about this in this thread (http://messageboard.cinescape.com/cinescape/forums/showthread.php?t=447).

We tried to help, but they shot, killed and desicrated the bodies of our soldiers. They can't put together a functioning government or social system and it seems like most of the aid given to them is wasted or used as a bargain chip.

Well, I say 'screw em'. Let's let Darwinism take it's course. It's clear these people don't have the will or ability to survive.

Omicron

[Space Tycoon]

Except we all know it's not quite that simple, don't we? The US is obviously backing the anti-Islamist warlords with money and arms. I realize many Americans believe that Africa just would fall apart without their benevolence. But it's not as easy to face the ugly truth: on any given day, all over the world, your government is undermining local movements which run counter to American interests. Movements which could very well lead to the very self-sufficiency you claim to support.

A recent Washington post article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/16/AR2006051601625.html) states this is in fact true.

The issue of U.S. backing came to the forefront this winter when warlords formed the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism after a fundamentalist Islamic group began asserting itself in the capital, setting up courts of Islamic law and building schools and hospitals.

Building schools and hospitals?! Uh-oh, better snuff that out before they get any funny ideas about establishing a self-sufficient independent government...

Many people here say they feel that the United States has ignored Somalia since the failed 1993 military intervention. Today many Somalis said they regret that chapter in their history and thank the United States, the largest donor of food and funding for water trucks during this season's drought.

However, they said that news that the U.S. government was talking with warlords has awakened feelings of resentment.

"George W. Bush, we welcome the Americans. But not to back warlords. We need the U.S.A. to help the young government," said Isak Nur Isak, the district commissioner in Waajid. "We won't drag any Americans through the street like in 1993. We want to be clear: We don't want only food aid, but we do want political support for the new government, which is all we have right now to put our hopes in. We can't eat if everyone is dead."

[Cncrman]

You know, you're right. I was thinking of that today... it's easy to forget these things.

All these presidents get to be a blur after awhile.... :smirks:

Here is a handy chart I use since Regan Era:

Regan - Memory sucked
Bush Sr. - Judgment sucked
Clinton - Got sucked
Bush Jr. - Just sucks