NEWS: US Airstrikes in Somalia

POLITICS: US Airstrikes In Somalia

Now that the Union of Islamic Courts is out of the way, with a Western-friendly transitional government retaking control of Somalia, the US is apparently free to pursue and attack al-Qaeda there.

The connection between al-Qaeda and Somalian Islamist groups has long been suspected, and the US has been chomping at the bit to get a chance to go in there and try to find the people thought to be responsible for the US embassy bombings in 1998 in Kenya and Tanzania. But with the country in the midst of a civil war it made any military operations difficult to pursue without becoming directly involved in the conflict. With what appears to be a complete rout of the ICU by the Somali transitional government forces, the road was paved for the US to get back in and have another look.

Apparently the new government is OK with it as well. With any luck it will be a quick operation with no collateral damage, and catching the planners of the embassy bombings could lead to more useful intelligence information about al-Qaeda, which has been supposedly difficult to obtain so far.

In the words of Borat...

Pekuhh! Pekuhhhhhh!

Jesus Fing Christ!

No!, we yell at Ethiopia (spl?), Don't go in there and help those Somalis! It's a bad idea! You're going to destabilize the whole region!

Then, soon as they do, and do it in 4 days mind you, we say, "Oh, OK, they did it and they like us, so let's start bombing shit there because it's fine now, they won't mind at all. They have a government, of sorts, in place that is friendly to us."

So, instead of going there, a region where a war on terror is justified, we go to Iraq so my friends can die for fucking OIL and some stupid sense of revenge! Mind you, that while we were at the negotiation tables with Saddam the first time, he was committing war crimes that we were FULLY aware of, and could have stopped, but we were in such a hurry to get out of the country while we were still "victorious" that we turned a blind eye and lets thousands more die because of their religion and beliefs.

Yet, here's a country where human rights violations have existed on a scale that is almost unbelieveable, but we looked the other way because we got our asses handed to us here once before (due to, gasp! surprise!, a lack of commitment).

Where did you hear that? I had heard we didn't say anything either way.

Frankly I am glad we are finally seeing us go after al-Qaeda.

Right, cuz the justification for going into Afghanistan was that they were cutting their heroin way, WAAY too weak?

Everything the current admin has done militarily has been tied to Al-Qaeda, or 911, or WMD's, or....ummm.....help me out here....oil? Allowing Lone Star to be sold in Riyad? Fuck, now I'm confused and can't recall...

screw it, Pelosi's got it covered.


More martini's bar-person!!!

To be honest this is a damn good development, at least the ICU have been scattered and by African forces.
Such a rout was never expected but it just shows how much they thought they were in control without physical presence and the support of the people. If you don't have their hearts you better have a big gun!
And it's been long documented that plenty of guilty extremists were hold up there, here's hoping they've got their comeuppance and no innocents have suffered.
Actually here's hoping this is another step towards Africa solving it's own problems. For their sake.

To cut down on the number of bombing sorties........

I think we should just start making bigger bombs

+1 for bombing shit

Whooooooosh.

Way to destabalize an already unstable situation and make the locals of a region turn towards your enemies. Nothing like the USA for long term planning.

Did I miss the declaration of war and Congress' approval of said declaration?!

And nothing says "you've a great future ahead of you" like a government which aproves of foreign powers bombing its own citizens.

I'm hearing that luck wasn't with us, or more importantly with a number of Somali civilians. As to how many of the non-civilians were members of al Qaeda, we shall have to rely on the abilities and discretion of the same people who knew just where Saddam had WMDs before the Iraq war.

Air strikes tend not to result in arrests, so avoiding those pesky trials too. How much information can there be to find? There were two bombs nearly a decade ago. Not really a relentless campaign of terror sweeping the continent.

Small update. I hear there have been about 40 prisoners taken by US forces, in addition to several more air assaults. Chances are they'll be enjoying the delights of a long flight, with bags on their heads, to a rights free zone. We shall see.

Yes. No true state of Somalia exists. It's totally cool to bomb an anarchichal no-man's land.

"Indiscriminate killing of civillians is surely the best way to win the hearts and minds of the people"
Insert Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Rice or ony of the other insane neo-cons running this country.

Were not there to win their hearts and minds tho so who cares?

It still hasn't occurred to you that their brothers, sisters, cousins, other relatives, friends, neighbours, co-nationals and co-religionists might care?

And that those people - who outnumber the dead by a long, long way, since you need this explaining - might be a little pissed off?

Let me turn it around a little. How would you feel if some strange bunch of Islamist weirdo nutjobs decided to ram a couple of guided missiles into the middle of New York?

Getting it yet?

Well I would be pissed off, however the Somalis are probably still plenty pissed at us for the last time we were there so I don't think they will get so much more pissed that they build a fleet of rafts and row across the Atlantic ocean to kill us all with machete in our sleep. So since the risk is minimal and there is really nothing they can do to us, so again I say........ Who cares, I think they will be a littl more pissed about the countries in africa fighting and using somalia as a proxy battlefield our meddling is minimal compared to that.

Damn. You actually do hate America.

Yeah, they hate the US already so what does more bombing and shooting matter? Who cares? Ah, what the hell, kill everybody!

See thats the spirit.

Because only conservatives are hawks.

Ok in all seriousness tho, considering the conditions already existing in Somalia even if there is some short term anger over american caused civilian deaths they have way too many problems and their civil war is not going to end any time soon. Those deaths tho tragic, are not going to influence things there.

You might remember that

(a) the US has intervened in Somalia before - an intervention which led to the deaths of many Somali elders for no good reason. That sort of thing tends to stay in the minds of people. I'll give you an example that's a little closer to home, at least for me: British troops fired on a demonstration in 1972 and killed fourteen unarmed people, and that event acted to catalyse twenty years of Troubles.

(b) it's not a small world any more. There are many Somalis living outside Somalia, mostly because of the dismal state of affairs there. One thing to learn from September 2001: a small number of people can have a big effect.