A(Updated: Originally published November 11, 2006)
It's always gratifying to be proved right, and here I go again:
"U.S. Official Offers a Bleak Assessment of Somalia" by JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov. 10 — A senior American military official on Friday painted a dire picture of the escalating tensions in Somalia, but said the United States was at a loss about what to do.
The official, who spoke to reporters in Nairobi only on condition of anonymity:
“We do not have a plan to solve the Somalia problem.”
Somalia, once again, is at a crisis point, with rising prospects of a major war between the weak, so-called transitional government and the increasingly powerful Islamic forces that rule Mogadishu, the capital.
Why is it a problem?
Because the Islamists defeated the murdering, raping warlords the U.S. supported?
And as for no plan, that was bull. Ethiopia invaded a month later!
A long-simmering problem is that all of Somalia’s neighbors — Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti — have significant populations of ethnic Somalis. Some of the Islamic clerics in Mogadishu have vowed to invade these countries to establish a “Greater Somalia.”
Yeah, make the Somalis the aggressors. Let's tar them with that false charge!
Another concern is that Ethiopia and Eritrea, bitter enemies that recently fought over a stretch of desert in a war that cost 100,000 lives, are meddling in Somalia, with Eritrea suspected of sending advisers and weapons to Mogadishu to support the Islamists and Ethiopian officials now admitting, after initial denials, that hundreds of Ethiopian military advisers are in Baidoa, the seat of the transitional government. Western experts estimate that the number is actually much higher, maybe as many as 10,000 Ethiopian soldiers, and growing.
As I had reported earlier, Ethiopia had troops in Somalia despite "initial denials" -- all governments are liars -- and with Ethiopian troops in Somalia, WHO INVADED WHO?
Not a surprise at all, because:
Ethiopia is one of the closest allies of the United States in Africa... the American government was using the Ethiopian Army as a proxy force against the Islamists, whom American intelligence agents have accused of cooperating with terrorists from Al Qaeda.
The exact point I made weeks ago: Ethiopia replaced the murderous warlords as our proxy.
And I'm sure there is a back-up plan to Ethiopia's possible defeat, and I'm sure there is a back-up plan for that eventuality, too!
It is just simply the way our fascist-soaked policy makers plot and plan, lurking just beyond our understanding and view, right?
Sharif Hassan Sheik Aden, the speaker of the transitional Parliament and one of the few politicians from Baidoa respected by the Islamists, spent several days in Mogadishu trying to coax Islamic leaders back to peace negotiations that started in June, though the latest round was broken off because the Islamists refused to negotiate while Ethiopian troops were in the country.
The Islamists, whose support seems to be growing in Mogadishu, were mildly optimistic about Sheik Aden’s visit.
Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, leader of Somalia’s Council of Islamic Courts, told The Associated Press this week:
“We expect to reach a solution because it is a known fact that if Somalis talk to one another they can make peace.”
I wouldn't worry too much.
We will find some waty to sabotage peace efforts here.
And those Islamist terrorists really sound radical, huh?
Won't negotiate a unity government with an occupying force present.
How GD UNREASONABLE!
We must be losing the "war on terror" if the terrorist Islamists of Somalia "support seems to be growing in Mogadishu."
Maybe the Islamists aren't terrorists. Maybe the terrorists are US!
In fact, there is NO MAYBE ABOUT IT!
