Yeah, I’ll lose sleep over this one tonight.
Somali Islamists flee stronghold
KISMAYU, Somalia (Reuters) – Somalia’s Islamists fled toward Kenya or melted into the southern hills on Monday after abandoning their last stronghold to advancing government forces backed by Ethiopian troops, tanks and planes.
In just two weeks, Ethiopia’s military muscle has enabled a feeble government to break out of its provincial enclave, drive the Somali Islamic Courts Council (SICC) from the capital and end six months of Islamist rule across much of the south…
Diplomats said Ethiopia has almost certainly received tacit U.S. support for its intervention. [If that's truly the case, this would at least be a little less embarrassing for us--ed]. Their forces have provided an unbeatable combination of air power, artillery and tank support which has quickly routed the Islamists.
Residents north of Kismayu said mortar and rocket battles between the two sides stopped just before midnight. “There was a big silence. Then the Islamic Courts just left,” one local said.
Yes, that’s what happens when savages realize there’s no American media around to help them and they’re facing a military with orders to actually kill them.
This, however, is very troubling, and sounds very much like the Bocce Ball players in Washington, DC:
The government said that despite its military successes it recognized that a political settlement was still vital in order to head off the possibility of an Islamist insurgency. “We need to end the impasse politically,” Interior Minister Hussein Mohamed Farah Aideed told reporters in the capital. “If we do not reconcile with them then they will start an insurgency like in Iraq.”
And this despite the fact that the people of Mogadishu threw rocks at the fleeing Islamists.
Funny thing–in 1945, after the German “surrender,” we dealt with a Nazi “insurgency” for two full years until Germany was completely quelled. At no point did anyone suggest we negotiate a “political settlement” with the enemy because they continued to shoot at us. The solution then was to kill all the enemy, and break the will of any supporters they may have. If we had leadership that wasn’t becoming more mired in political correctness and defeatism every day, the remarkable success of Ethiopia in Somalia would send chills down the spines of every Islamist in Iraq as they would fear the “kill the enemy” strategy might be now be applied to them.
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“Yes, that’s what happens when savages realize there’s no American media around to help them and they’re facing a military with orders to actually kill them.” — TB
I do believe large motivational posters bearing that observation should be made and plastered on the wall of every State Dept and Pentagon wall. By the way, there is a “Stars & Stripes” article describing US training of Ethiopian forces that has been done. See http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=42481
Ethiopia’s triumph against the Islamists in Somalia makes me more hopeful for the coming year. Finally, news about other people in the world standing up, willing to fight for what is right and downright winning! How refreshing and inspiring.
If President Bush would just try things the “Tammy Way” in Iraq for a month, we’d be well on our way to another victory to celibrate.
My Dad was in one of the units that fought the “Nazi insurgency” in 1945 after the Germans surrendered, and told me it was a VERY real problem for a long period of time.
Funny how the media didn’t paint WWII as being an abject failure because a few hard-liners kept up the attacks.
Funny, isn’t it, that France isn’t up in arms about Ethiopia’s ‘invasion’ of Somalia.
Why isn’t France undermining Ethiopia in the U.N.?
Or at the very least trying to create a united Europe to counter imperialistic Ethiopia?
Where is that strident, morally nasal voice of France?
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