Is the United States really bogged down in the war on terror, like nearly every news outlet is reporting? After all Iraq looks like a quagmire. Every day the news seems to show sectarian strife between Iranian backed radical Shiite Islamicists and Al Qaida backed radical Sunni Islamicists. The U.S. and the small democratic middle caught in the crossfire. But is that the reality?
Overnight, the answer came out with a resounding NO - at least until the next militia atrocity in Iraq.
George Bush is looking like the big winner, for this week. The U.S. spy network on the ground in Somalia got wind that the retreating radical Al Qaida islamicists were cornered in a remote area in the southern tip of Somalia. In swooped C-130 gunships in the dark of night, catching their massed troops by surprise.
Now let's think about this a moment. Isn't Al Qaida a guerilla network, not an army? Yes and no. In Somalia, financed by like-minded radical Salafi or "Wahhabi" Sunni Muslims largely in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, Al Qaida managed to stage a coup and take over the capital city of Mogadishu. They set up the "Islamic courts union" that started enforcing their brand of justice ... you know the routine (remember Afghanistan?). Lot's of hangings, assassinations and compelled interrogation. And we are not talking about the fluff-puff Guantanimo type of interrogations. They are really serious.
They set up an armed force to rule the country. But finally, the Somali warlords and UN backed government got some Ethiopian backing and commenced an offensive.
When the Somali government started its offensive, the Al Qaida islamicists found themselves in hostile territory as the local warlords who had laid low after the coup forced them out as the Somali forces swept in. So the "courts" did a tactical retreat out of the capital Mogadishu to the south where they thought they could be resupplied by sea from friendly supporters in the Arab world, as they had been during their rise to power.
In swoops Uncle Sam and chalk one up for the good guys for a change.
Now, that's the common story being put out by all the media outlets. But what really was going on in Somalia these few weeks? In reality the Somali government has been begging for assistance in fighting back against the radical al Qaida islamicists who had taken over their country. After months of wrangling they got it. The U.S. undoubtedly has provided tactical but not military support. However, when a mass of al-Qaida bigwigs was spotted, time to call in the U.S. air force and navy. Who were these guys? Rumor has it they were the plotters of bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that murdered over 200 Kenyans, Tanzanians and Americans, and an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya that killed more Kenyans and three Israelis. Whether the top al-Qaida masterminds were hit is subject to conjecture, but the point was made nevertheless.
The moral of this story is: Regardless of how bogged down the U.S. might appear in Iraq, it remembers and accounts for all attacks on its territory. If you commit crimes against humanity expect justice to catch up eventually, whether from legitimate courts or eagles swooping in from the sky.
Oh, why did we call this article Somalia, Part II? Part I was the battle glamourized in the film watched over and over by Saddam Hussein, Black Hawk Down, where some 15 U.S. soldiers were killed in a street battle in Mogadishu, Somalia. The U.S. no longer underestimates the Somalis.
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