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Extremists In Africa
Like heck they are
How about doing something against Muslim extremism in Africa? Somalia is now just about completely ruled by the “Islamist militia”.
They now seized “the southern town of Kismayo, one of the last seaports that had been outside their control in Somalia”.
The United States has accused the Islamic group of sheltering suspects in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden has portrayed Somalia as a battleground in his war on the U.S.The group’s strict and often severe interpretation of Islam raises memories of Afghanistan’s Taliban, which was ousted by a U.S.-led campaign for harboring bin Laden and al-Qaida fighters. Still, many residents credit the courts with bringing a semblance of order.
If the West is so dedicated to fighting extremism, how can we let this happen?
3 Responses to “Extremists In Africa”
The Bush administration, in fact, did support the Islamists main rival. They lost. Short of a direct military intervention, that is all we can do: provide support to opponents of our enemies. It doesn’t always work.
Could we have intervened earlier? Very possibly, but after about a decade or two of allowing our human intelligence on the ground to atrophy, I wouldn’t even be surprised to find out we really were not on top of things intelligence-wise. It will take years to rebuild our human intelligence apparatus to the level it once was.
Of course, one irony is that if we intervene in a military fashion, we will be criticized by the Left as imperalists. If we indirectly intervene by supporting the opponents of the Islamists, who are no doubt thugs themselves, we are criticized by the Left for aiding evil and violent people, and if we don’t intervene at all, we are criticized by the Left for not caring about the human rights of those who will suffer at the hands of the Islamists. With the Chomskyite Left, it is always a lose-lose proposition for America to be doing anything (or nothing) in the world.
I agree with Tommy in paragraphs one and two, but my eyes glazed over during paragraph three. How relevant is the “Chomskyite Left” to this particular discussion?
The important thing about Somalia, to me at least, is the relative non-violent nature of the ICU’s takeover. Of course, with Sharia law, the blood comes later when the bounds of freedom are tested. But the people had a yearning for order and fear of the control localized clan gangs, (the warlords we supported) and the courts filled the vacuum. It is a sad state of affairs, indeed, which military intervention (the Ethiopians made a mild attempt) could not have averted without creating further disaster. I’m sure not smart enough to know how the West could not have let it happen, but I am surprised how little attention it has received here.
I truly believed that the lack of attention for it is due to the fact that it’s all in Africa.
Sad, but that’s how I see it.
You kind of point out yourself why it still is a mistake, why this cannot be allowed to happen. You know, Hitler brought a lot of order, as did the Communists, as did Mussolini, as did Saddam Hussein, as did Milosevic, as did the list goes on and on.
Tommy and OoC: I agree with your general premisse though, that it was incredibly difficult for the US to do something. That being said, I quite clearly said “the West” in my post -> Europe could have done something valuable as well. Instead, we sit passively by, let it all happen and blame the US when things develop into a humanitarian disaster.
Somalia is not Iraq: Europe has enough military power to create order in Somalia and enough economical power to rebuild its economy, both locally and centrally.
And, if the US and Europe would have done this together…
Ahwell…