Somalia: The Reckoning

If Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam, Somalia is Swahili for Iraq. We see the same deeply divided ethnic (within Somalia) and religious (Muslim Somalia and Christian Ethiopia) as in Iraq, and the same potent mix of idealogically loggerhead groups that are heavily armed as in Vietnam. We can, at least, be thankful we took care of Eritrea before those mongrels could come in and mess up Somalia even worse. I'll accept a retroactive Nobel Peace Prize by mail if neccessary (ethnomorph@gmail.com). I'm sure Muhammed Yunus and I can share.
What is most worrying, and ever present in the subtext of reporting on the issue-both the Ethiopian invasion and the earlier warlord coalition against the Islamic Courts Union- is the tacit support and blessing of the United States, as Al-Riyad newspaper in Saudi Arabia said,"The war could have broken out with the express approval of major countries." It could be a change in strategy, just as Bush appears to be signaling a surge of troops in Iraq, by the US and UK towards proxy wars to avoid major conventional confrontations in the future-be they real or imagined.

Quotes of the day:
"The explosion in this strategic part of the Horn of Africa will not only last but also spread to other sub-Saharan Africa regions already plagued by devastating conflicts. What is strange is the 'smug' silence from the Western powers. The easy solution is to use this war as part of the global war against terrorism; if this is the case, we can expect to see another Hundred Years' War."
--LA NOUVELLE REPUBLIQUE editorial

"While it would be silly to reduce the conflict to a mere contest between the 'Islamist' Somalia and 'Christian' Ethiopia, this religious appendage is appealing to both sides. What the world is witnessing is a resurrection of old tensions between Ethiopia and Somalia, now fanned by proxies... The lifting of the arms embargo on Somalia places the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, the African Union and the UN in a precarious position as the Somali crisis threatens to escalate into a regional conflict."
--NATION (kenya) editorial