The End in Somalia
The disastrous American-backed Ethiopian invasion of Somalia seems to have reached its ultimate conclusion today as the Ethiopian-backed nominal government totally collapses and Islamist insurgents capture Baidoa. Now we’ll have to reach some kind of accommodation with the Islamists, which is what we should have done back in late 2006, but we’re now going to be dealing with a more radicalized and anti-American crew than otherwise would have been there.
At the time of the invasion back around Christmas 2006, right-wing commentators were busy offering unusually stupid opinions. Robert Farley reminds me of a classic Corner post in which Deborah Glick and Cliff May teamed up to explain the “real” (i.e., fake) roots of European skepticism about the operation:
Israelis routinely assume that Europe’s pro-jihadist policy towards the Palestinians is a result of anti-Semitism or anger over Israel’s military victory in 1967. But the EU’s treatment of Ethiopia and the TFG [the secular Transitional Federal Government] indicates that Brussels’ hostility towards the Jewish state is part of a much further-reaching policy. Europe’s pro-jihad position toward the war in Somalia indicates that its support for jihad is over-arching rather than limited to specific battlegrounds.
According to Glick, European governments have adopt a wide-ranging pro-jihad stance “in the hope that their support will deflect jihadist violence away from them.” Also, the people who write for The Corner are idiots.
51 Responses to “The End in Somalia”
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January 27th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
“Now we’ll have to reach some kind of accommodation with the Islamists…”
This direction fills me with dread, regardless of ICU’s evolution these past two years.
A mirror image of the Taliban with a foot in the Persian Gulf.
January 27th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
This is organization is not, in any practical way, a government, unless terrorizing a population into the dark ages can be called “governance”. The rest is left to the warlords, with whom actual “accommodation” makes more sense.
January 27th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
I could also point out their (albeit newfound) alliance with piracy, but that would just invite passioned pleas that it was the Ethiopian war that created it.
Which is to miss the point.
January 27th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
What I’m getting at is this: for as long as the horn of Africa is left in the hands of either totalitarian thug rule or anarchy (which, after all, are not so different) —
in this, are not inviting another base for international terrorism? Aren’t we taking the easy way out to bask in an imaginary peace, as we did during “the end of history”?
January 27th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Here, here. May especially so. I won’t claim that all of the Jihadi anger is generated by clusterfucks from the US supporting doomed puppet governments in the Muslim world. But it does provide a stamp of approval for militants to gain support for their cause — not to mention increased recruiting. The only thing shakier than supporting an unpopular puppet regime, is propping up one made by a third country that happens to be a traditional enemy of the people in said country. OTOH, there seems to be oil, maybe lots, so maybe the Bushies and their oil buddies smelled a profit for their(and ours) trouble.
January 27th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
It’s always gonna be 2003 for Al. His brand of bullshit is just fine. It’s almost amusing to read it now and I sincerely hope you and The Corner never lose the spirit of the Summer of War.
January 27th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Which is why he posts ad hominem irrelevancies.
January 27th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
oil in Ethiopia, not Somalia, probably.
January 27th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
It’s going to be nice* in 4 or 5 years, when Somalia is still an irrecovocable clusterfudge, and MattY can’t blame it on a one-off event which didn’t even effect large swaths of the country.
*except for the Somalians of course.
January 27th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Al doesn’t even believe, Al. It’s a bunch of cutesy bullshit and he knows better. If you want me to unpack it for you, pay me. I don’t need to care what you or him think anymore. I would enjoy it more if you believe whatever makes you most scared and miserable.
January 27th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Who cares?
I mean, as long as the West maintains naval presence in Somalian waters and are able to shoot the pirates, I really couldn’t care less what happens on land in that God-forsaken place.
January 27th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
“I would enjoy it more if you believe whatever makes you most scared and miserable.”
Q.E.D.
January 27th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Honestly, it was a huge mistake on the part of the defunct bush admin to use Ethiopia which is viewed by many somalis as a nazi state to invade and occupy the country for 2 years.
The ethiopian army has killed over 25, 000 somalis and displaced 1.5 million from their homes in the capital city.
They hve raped, killed, tortured and done anything under the sun that is horrible.
Asking ethiopia to help somalia is asking a wolf to protect a sheep, because it is in ethiopias own so called interest to never see a stable and secure somalia.
That is why the UN backed Government failed because relied on the support of ethiopian army rather than the trust of the people.
January 27th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
It is, BTW, good stuff from Glick and May. Entirely correct.
Oh, troll harder. What is it but more bullshit from the Foundation for the Defense of Clifford May’s $300,000 Wingnut Welfare Check?
January 27th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Ethiopia is viewed as “a nazi state’?
Oh, for f*ck’s sake.
Does this cheerful fellow sound familiar?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_ibn_Ibrihim_al-Ghazi
January 27th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Just a question for Yglesias and the rest of the hipsters around here….is there any conflict in the last 500 years in which you guys think the Muslim side was wrong and the non-Muslim side was right?
If not, then I remain convinced that you guys are Islamophiles to the core.
January 27th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
As a somali, i can only smile at the rise of the somali spirit once more. These invaders never learn. The abysinians tried it. The british tried it. The italians tried it. The eithopians again have tried it. When will they ever learn. We somalis are not arabs. If you come to our lands to bomb us and subujugate us, we will fight back.
After 2 years of resistance by the somali people we finally threw those war criminals of eithopia. Poor eithopia. No more bush to bankroll your filthy ways again.
I am so happy with the resistance. They gave the somalis their dignity and pride. Baidoa the parliament capital is now controlled by the resistance and now it is peaceful again. No more warlords and eithopian collabrators running around the place. Southern somalia is safe now.
Hey abdi, my brother, the peace is at hand. Once again somalia is back and controlled by somalis. Our enemies tried but they failed as usual. The lesson learned is never give up even when the odds are stacked against you.
This national liberation is dedicated to men who were murdered, the women who were raped and the children who were orphaned. It is dedicated to every somali who died for his country to free it from the thugs of eithopia. I salute you guys. because of you, today somalia is back with somalis once again.
Only thing we need now is a unity government with all factions. The formation of a strong united somalia will be the last insult to our enemies. We almost had one in 2006.
We will have one inshallah soon. Just a matter of time. Viva somalia.
January 27th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
What are you talking about? MY’s post didn’t claim any such thing. My reading of the thread post said we shouldn’t have been involved with Ethiopia’s puppet gov. and we should have made some accommodation with the Islamists there long ago. And the end result is more resentment toward the US, that needn’t have happened. And I agree, as do most of the commenters. Unless your talking about Al the wingnut troll.
January 27th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
That’s a really loaded question, Hector, and it sort of says more about you and your take on history than it does on anyone else.
I can’t think of much positive at all that the Ottoman Empire did in it’s entire history. That all exists well inside the last 500 years. There was definately a sectarian element to things like the Armenian genocide, but that’s way too easy, lazy and self-serving. The Ottoman empire wasn’t a religious crusade anymore than any of the majority Christian nations who practiced imperialism at the time where at their core religious excercises. It was about money.
You have grabbed a big swatch of history and boiled it down to Muslims: bad or good. It’s not that easy.
January 27th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
On the bright side, they gave you an excuse to drag Israel into the picture.
January 27th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
There’s no need to analyze Hector’s question. He’s a rightwing Christian who believes any other religion is of the devil. So he answers his own question by always blaming Muslims for everything.
He’s as pathetic as Al.
January 27th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
I misread Hector’s remark, but still say the thread post was neutral and not taking sides, as are most of the comments, other than Al’s or Hector’s
January 27th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Ethiopia’s puppet gov.
Too funny. The Transitional Government supported by the UN and the AU is an “Ethiopian puppet”. How ignorant.
The UN has been supporting the TFG since well before the Ethiopian invasion. Now, I know that Matthew and most of the commenters here are isolationists who hate the idea that the UN might support a somewhat representative government instead of the Taliban-like Islamists that Matthew and the commenters support. But I, for one, unlike Matthew, actually care about supporting the UN.
January 27th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
Ethiopia’s puppet gov.
January 27th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
LOL. You Spoof.
January 27th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Too funy, stuck. You link to an article written by “a member of the National Coordinating Committee of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism”. Too funny!
You might note that Yusuf was elected by the Transitional Federal Parliament as the President of Somalia in October 2004 – more than two years prior to the Ethiopian invasion in 2006. And he wasn’t in exile – his government was located in Somalia, in the city of Baidoa.
So, basically, everything you just wrote is completely wrong. Nice try, though!
January 27th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Read your link wanker.
Read at your leisure– Google Somalia puppet government
January 27th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
also
January 27th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
forgot link to above.
January 27th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
Hector is actually The Last Templar.
January 28th, 2009 at 12:37 am
Since this post is sort of about stupid people who write for the Corner, I’ll reiterate that Corner contributor and former Dan Quayle speechwriter (heh) Lisa Schiffren wrote that Rev Lowery’s inauguration benediction reminded her of human feces and urine because it contained the words yellow and brown, and that this association was evidence of *Lowery’s* racism – not, as one might assume, of Schiffren’s.
January 28th, 2009 at 12:43 am
So apparently not wanting innocent Palestinians taking refuge in UN schools to be burned to death by White Phosphorus is “pro-jihadist”
January 28th, 2009 at 12:49 am
Google “Darfur” you’ll find out that a lot of “hipsters” are against the Muslim side in that conflict, i.e. against the Janjaweed.
Also google “Armenian Genocide”, the “hipsters” tend to take the side of the Armenians and not the genocidal Ottomans.
January 28th, 2009 at 8:02 am
Hector,
If you read about Ethiopian/Somoalian history, you might find some things more pertanent than what happened in the 16th century. You might realize, that if one did want to militarily intervene in Somalia, using Ethiopian troops was a way to guarantee failure. Even if the Islamists were completely annihilated, there would still be chaos and brutal armed resistance against any government the Ethiopians put in place. It would be like using Turkish troops to support the Greek government against the communists after WWII. Success was an impossibility.
January 28th, 2009 at 10:55 am
Let’s just pick our friends in that region and forget our enemies. That would be Puntland (which may not be a real state, but it sure has a nice website), Djibouti, and more grudgingly, Ethiopia–a noxious regime in many ways, but firmly secularist and susceptible to change. Eritrea and the rest of Somalia (warlord, Islamist, whatever) can go suck eggs.
January 28th, 2009 at 11:26 am
Caroline Glick, Matt, not Deborah Glick. Deborah is the assemblywoman for the 66th district in Manhattan. I’ve never asked her about Somalia. Love you blog.
January 28th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Hey all,
Have any of you thought about actually confirming the things you believe about US Somalia policy by actually, say, calling up the folks at State or Defense who make the policy?
OSD might be a little hard to get a hold of, but I’m sure the friendly folks in the Office of East African Affairs at State would be happy to answer polite questions. Both the conservatives and liberals posting here might be surprised at some of the answers.
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