Al-Shabaab should be taught a lesson

I argued here recently that the solution to the piracy in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia lies not offshore but in the borders. I suggested that Somalia’s neighbours should consider moving into the country to restore order.
In a separate article about the disputed island of Migingo, I wrote that today it may be Uganda laying claim to Kenyan territory, but tomorrow it could be Sudan or Somalia.
Increasingly, the world is discussing Somalia, especially since the extremist Islamist forces gained the upper hand in the fighting against the Transitional Federal Government and now look set to overrun it.
Al Shabaab are not confining their military activities and designs to the borders of Somalia; they have warned that they will attack Kenya if Nairobi masses troops on the 1,200 km-long border.
And only last week, the Islamists warned that they would blow up a bridge that links the rest of Kenya with the north as if to emphasise their earlier claim to North Eastern Province . In other words, like Siad Barre, that policeman-turned-soldier-turned-butcher president, al Shabaab are saying they believe in a greater Somalia, an expansionist dream best captured in the pointed stars of the Somalia flag.
This dream explains why Mogadishu and Addis Ababa went into a misguided war in the late ‘70s over the Ogaden region of Ethiopia and the strained relations between Nairobi and Mogadishu over Kenya’s North Eastern Province...more..http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/-/440808/616152/-/4lcux3/-/index.html