AU

[Plane]

The Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) has depicted the conflict with Christian-led Ethiopia as a holy war against "crusaders," tapping into popular anti-Ethiopian sentiment after decades of rivalry between the two neighbors.

Ethiopia has portrayed it as a war against al Qaeda-linked terrorists, winning tacit support from Washington, which believes Islamic militants are hiding in Somalia.

In a hastily convened session, the African Union (AU) demanded all foreign players, including Ethiopia, immediately withdraw their forces from Somalia.

http://www.yahoo.com/s/469222

[Lanya]

Do we really have to go around batting every hornet's nest we see, all over the world?  Is there not one we can let alone? 

Don't we have any ambassadors who can sip tea and talk of gardens while tensions possibly recede? 

[Plane]

Do we really have to go around batting every hornet's nest we see, all over the world?  Is there not one we can let alone? 

Don't we have any ambassadors who can sip tea and talk of gardens while tensions possibly recede? 

No one has ambassadors who can walk in with no carrot and no stick and get any diplomacy done.

The Problem is not being addressed by Americans right now , the AU is the African Union. The helpfull invaders are Ethiopians.

The reason it is intresting to me is that in the Islamic world the Ethiopian government is being accused of Crusade behavior.

In Arabic "Crusade " is a dirty word , it means swarms of unreasonable and heavily armed men are invading to cause misery. In English of course the equivalent word is "Jihad" .

But because the resistance to Jihad is perceived as crusading there is a lumping of all Christians together and a conspiracy perceived between the Pope the USA and the Ethiopians.

[BT]

Do we really have to go around batting every hornet's nest we see, all over the world?  Is there not one we can let alone?

We cut and run from there, a dozen years ago. This is the natural progression.

[Plane]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061228/ap_on_re_af/somalia

Islamists acknowledged they had left Mogadishu but said they were not giving up their fight. Abdirahman Janaqow, a senior leader, told The Associated Press he ordered his forces out of the capital to avoid bloodshed.

"We decided to leave Mogadishu because of the safety of the civilians," Janaqow said in a telephone interview. "We want to face our enemy and their stooges in a separate area, away from civilians."

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I think this is highly comendable.

I wonder how well it will work.

[_JS]

Somalia and Ethiopia have a long history of warfare. They even provided one of the oddest switches of diplomacy during the Cold War when they fought the Ogaden War. At one point the Soviets were supplying both sides of the conflict, but eventually saw Ethiopia as their best bet to which Cuban troops were sent. China and some other non-Soviet aligned nations sponsored the Somalians (including us to a small degree at the time of the war). As with most wars, especially in Africa, it was a brutal event for both sides and especially for Somalia. We ended up adopting them as our pet regime until the late 80's.

In many ways both nations were absolutely devestated by Cold War politics, long before the 1993 Mogadishu clashes and UN intervention. That and the current problems are natural progressions of using Africans as pawns and then discarding them at the end of the Cold War.

[Xavier_Onassis]

We cut and run from there, a dozen years ago. This is the natural progression.

======================================================
Nonsense!

Olebush sent troops to Somalia because humanitarian aid was being intercepted by the militias in Mogadishu. It was NEVER the US mission to bring democracy to Somalia.

They had a bad plan, and this was made clear when Marines were ambushed and made to look incompetent.

When our Marines are made to look incompetent, we take it out on the 'enemy' for ungentlemanly behavior.
Not that the Marines have ever been noted for this.

Then Clinton came into office and did the only logical thing: he got the troops out.


Nothing was lost buy doing this, but many lives, especially American lives, were saved.

Cut and run, my ass.