'NOTHING NEW OUT OF AFRICA' IN ANNO DOMINI 2007? A LOOK AT THE WAR IN SOMALIA

'NOTHING NEW OUT OF AFRICA' IN ANNO DOMINI 2007? A LOOK AT THE WAR IN SOMALIA

The last few months of the 2006 saw something a bit unusual, even by the standards of military action in the dark continent: a quick assault by the (then) new rulers of Somalia, the Islamic Courts Council (hereafter ICC), which not only defeated and quickly conquered most of the country, as well as the capital city Mogadishu, and pushed to the wall, the United Nations backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG). Much was written on the likelihood of the negative effects on the region, of having an ultra-Islamist regime in control of a country which has a strategic toehold on the horn of Africa. However, in what the Rome based, online journal 'Power and Interest' calls a fatal combination of fanaticism and ineptness, the fanatics of the ICC, failed to understand that while having Allah behind one, is perhaps a 'good thing', per se, having a well-trained and equipped army, `a la the Ethiopian one, was all things considered something better. The end result was that in a few quick and decisive strokes, the ICC's forces were routed and, the by the end of the year, Ethopian forces had returned the TFG to power in Mogadishu. A result, which by the bye is a clear, if not widely touted victory for American diplomacy, since the USA gave Addis Ababa, diplomatic cover at the Security Council to pursue its military policy of overthrow. As the Power and Interest writer, Dr. Michael Weinstein comments, the Ethopian blitzkrieg, was in fact, a successful version of what Israel's failed summer offensive did not do. So, in the case of the Somolian war, there is much for diplomatic observers and military strategists to ponder and think over. So contrary to Pliny the Younger's dictum of 19 centuries ago, there is indeed, something new out of Africa.

Requiem for Somalia's Aborted Islamic Revolution
1 January 2007
By Dr. Michael Weinstein

"With the defeat and dissolution on December 27 of the Islamic Courts Council (I.C.C.)..."

Date: Tue, 02 Jan 2007 08:15:28 -0500
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