Choosing the Somalia Strategy in Afghanistan?

If media reports are to be believed, there are two camps in the White House.One camp, led by the military, believes that the strategy in Afghanistan should be modeled after Iraq. Large numbers of troops involved in counterinsurgency with a focus on protecting the civilian population, restoring order, and giving "breathing room" for the government to train its own forces. This model does not recognize that there are major differences between the indigenous Salaafi jihadists of the Taliban and foreign Salaafi jihadists of al Qaeda. It assumes that anarchy breeds extremism and that the vacuum left by a non-functioning government will be filled by the Taliban who will then be in a position to offer al Qaeda safe harbor from which attacks against US interests will be launched.The other camp, led by VP Biden, wants to follow the Somalia model. Since, unlike Iraq, our strategy in Somalia is not widely known, let me describe it as succinctly as possible.Several years ago an indigenous Islamist movement, modeled after the Taliban, called The Islamic Courts Union (ICU) took control of Somalia by force. US opposition to the ICU took the form of supporting local tribal militias. When these militias failed to oust the ICU, the US covertly supported an invasion by neighboring Ethiopia.However, the Ethiopian invasion failed at bringing order to the country. As the Ethiopians withdrew, the armed wing of the ICU, the al Shabaab Youth Mujahideen Movement, became the predominate force in many areas of the country. The al Shabaab openly supports and receives support from al Qaeda.
The new policy in Somalia was to try to differentiate between more "moderate" members of the Taliban-like ICU and al-Qaeda-like al Shabaab. more.. Visit our friends at http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/199092.php

Somalia looks like a lost cause,Fears for Somalia