Somalia has been a failed state since 1995, when the United Nations and the United States withdrew their humanitarian mission, leaving the warring clans to sort things out for themselves. For more than a decade, both Democratic and Republican administrations have written off Somalia, raising it only as a warning against U.S. military intervention in Africa. Is it any surprise then that this ungovernable and lawless state became the breeding ground for a conflict that pitted radical Islam against Ethiopia, and ultimately the WeThe overriding objective of the Supreme Islamic Courts Council since it seized Mogadishu six months ago has been to expand into neighboring Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti. As the Islamists overran southern Somalia, they indoctrinated school children and pressed them into the militant "al Shebab," whose ruthless leaders were growing increasingly close to al Qaeda. Their end goal was to form a Muslim caliphate in Greater Somalia under whose banner their reach would extend throughout the Horn and into central and southern Africa. Some claimed that this was a proxy war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Others even claimed that it was a proxy war with the United States using Ethiopia as its pawn. To believe this is to ignore the fact that the Islamic Courts' objective was to replace Somalia's secular government in Baidoa so that they could claim to rule all of Somalia. Ethiopia, alone among Somalia's neighbors, responded to the Transitional Federal Government's appeal for help. While there were competing motives for this conflict, it is certainly not—as the Islamists claim—an instance of Ethiopian aggression with the tacit blessing of the United States. Ethiopia, along with the African Union and the international community, pressed both sides for dialogue. But the Islamic Courts—covertly funded and armed by Eritrea and supporters of a radical Islamic state in the Horn of Africa—declared a jihad on Ethiopia and attacked the Transitional Federal Government. Eritrea hoped to use the conflict in Somalia to destabilize its archenemy Ethiopia, while Islamists hoped to upset the delicate balance between Ethiopia's 75 million evenly divided Orthodox Christian and Muslims. ..more,,http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2007/0103africa_huddleston.aspx
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Opportunity in Somalia
Somalia has been a failed state since 1995, when the United Nations and the United States withdrew their humanitarian mission, leaving the warring clans to sort things out for themselves. For more than a decade, both Democratic and Republican administrations have written off Somalia, raising it only as a warning against U.S. military intervention in Africa. Is it any surprise then that this ungovernable and lawless state became the breeding ground for a conflict that pitted radical Islam against Ethiopia, and ultimately the WeThe overriding objective of the Supreme Islamic Courts Council since it seized Mogadishu six months ago has been to expand into neighboring Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti. As the Islamists overran southern Somalia, they indoctrinated school children and pressed them into the militant "al Shebab," whose ruthless leaders were growing increasingly close to al Qaeda. Their end goal was to form a Muslim caliphate in Greater Somalia under whose banner their reach would extend throughout the Horn and into central and southern Africa. Some claimed that this was a proxy war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Others even claimed that it was a proxy war with the United States using Ethiopia as its pawn. To believe this is to ignore the fact that the Islamic Courts' objective was to replace Somalia's secular government in Baidoa so that they could claim to rule all of Somalia. Ethiopia, alone among Somalia's neighbors, responded to the Transitional Federal Government's appeal for help. While there were competing motives for this conflict, it is certainly not—as the Islamists claim—an instance of Ethiopian aggression with the tacit blessing of the United States. Ethiopia, along with the African Union and the international community, pressed both sides for dialogue. But the Islamic Courts—covertly funded and armed by Eritrea and supporters of a radical Islamic state in the Horn of Africa—declared a jihad on Ethiopia and attacked the Transitional Federal Government. Eritrea hoped to use the conflict in Somalia to destabilize its archenemy Ethiopia, while Islamists hoped to upset the delicate balance between Ethiopia's 75 million evenly divided Orthodox Christian and Muslims. ..more,,http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2007/0103africa_huddleston.aspx
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