Mighty Ethiopia
So while a certain national conservative blog tries to console itself with a cute little gallows graphic and another run to the store for Cheetos, world super-power Ethiopia is actually doing something about radical Islamists:
The striking thing about this is that our strategy in the War on Terror, or what's left of it, now appears to be let Ethiopia do it. Pakistan, Afghanistan--whatever. Too complicated.
And yes, I know about "Blackhawk Down" and let's recall that it was George H.W. Bush who sent American forces into Somalia in December, 1992. So if we want to play the "blame Clinton game" then Bush I gets a piece of that prize, too.
Our country needs a coherent foreign policy. We don't have one. What we have is talking points layered on attack points layered on powdered-cheese coated foolishness, presented to the American people by blow-dried Twinkies. (I'm trying to make a junk food analogy here, work with me.)
If there was ever a set of Islamic radicals that deserve to have their collective behinds kicked and tried for crimes against humanity, it's the ones in Somalia. If failed states run by Islamist radicals represent a grave threat to our security, Somalia is the poster child.
Too bad our military has been used for a mission of personal revenge instead of in the national interest of the United States. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, since George W. Bush is misusing the Army, the country should like to borrow it for a while.
Ethiopian tanks rumbled south from Mogadishu to attack Somali Islamists on Saturday after the religious movement's leaders called on fighters and residents in the port city of Kismayu to cast off a foreign "occupation".According to our own CIA the religious make-up of Ethiopia is much more balanced than that, with Muslims making up about 45-50% of the population. So to portray Ethiopia as a mostly Christian nation is grossly misleading.
Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, whose forces fled the Somali capital on Thursday, urged thousands of people gathered at a Kismayu stadium for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha to defend their nation and faith from Somali government troops backed by armour, soldiers and jet fighter planes from mostly Christian Ethiopia.
The striking thing about this is that our strategy in the War on Terror, or what's left of it, now appears to be let Ethiopia do it. Pakistan, Afghanistan--whatever. Too complicated.
And yes, I know about "Blackhawk Down" and let's recall that it was George H.W. Bush who sent American forces into Somalia in December, 1992. So if we want to play the "blame Clinton game" then Bush I gets a piece of that prize, too.
Our country needs a coherent foreign policy. We don't have one. What we have is talking points layered on attack points layered on powdered-cheese coated foolishness, presented to the American people by blow-dried Twinkies. (I'm trying to make a junk food analogy here, work with me.)
If there was ever a set of Islamic radicals that deserve to have their collective behinds kicked and tried for crimes against humanity, it's the ones in Somalia. If failed states run by Islamist radicals represent a grave threat to our security, Somalia is the poster child.
Too bad our military has been used for a mission of personal revenge instead of in the national interest of the United States. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, since George W. Bush is misusing the Army, the country should like to borrow it for a while.
