Posted on 12/20/2008 1:22:59 PM PST by ricks_place
WASHINGTON – The Bush administration inherited a mess in strategic Somalia and may be leaving President-elect Barack Obama with a worse one.
The explosion of piracy off Somalia's coast is an attention-grabbing product of internal chaos in the Horn of Africa country, and a problem that will outlast the administration's success this past week in winning U.N. backing for possible pirate-hunting raids on Somali territory.
"We have a framework in place now to deal with this issue, but it's not going to be a very easy one," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said.
Wood meant that there is more to do to combat piracy, and indeed Somali gunmen seized two more ships the day the Security Council voted unanimously to authorize nations to conduct land and air attacks on pirate bases on Somali coast.
Bandits are taking over more and larger ships and ranging farther from land to do it. Last month they seized a Saudi oil tanker carrying $100 million worth of crude.
The larger problem, however, is the hollowness of nearly every institution that makes a working country, despite more than 15 years of international help. The Somali pirates may be bandits and thugs, but they also are entrepreneurs making do in a place without a functioning government, laws or normal commerce.
"Once peace and normalcy have returned to Somalia, we believe that economic development can return to Somalia," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said following the U.N. vote. In the meantime, however, she wants a pirate crackdown. "This current response is a good start."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
But the AP blames America!
This is tragic especially considering what great shape the Clinton administration left Somalia in for the Bush administration.
Waaah, waaah, eeeverything USA’s fault...
If we go, we’re IMPERIALISTS, if we don’t go we’re ISOLATIONISTS, if we go then leave we’re BUNGLERS...
Isn’t the failure the Somolians fault or AP’s?
“Once peace and normalcy have returned to Somalia, we believe that economic development can return to Somalia,”
Cut us a break, Condi. WHEN WAS SOMALIA EVER “PEACEFUL AND NORMAL” ???
I believe the UN, the African Union and Bill Clinton share 99% of any blame there is to pass around.
“Cut us a break, Condi. WHEN WAS SOMALIA EVER “PEACEFUL AND NORMAL” ???”
Much less any other part of Africa.
Somalia and most of Africa is a failure no matter what.
“Africa’s problems are largely due to Africans.” - P.J. O’Rourke
Like many cultures and "civilizations" before them - the Somalians have not risen to the challenge of the new "Global Society".....
They have failed....and there are consequences to failures of this magnitude...
In fact - America has taken several long steps down that same road to oblivion....
I believe in simplifying problems. Instead of listing all the faults caused by the United States (or George Bush specifically), let’s try to think of some problem in the world which has not been attributed to American malfeasance. That should be a shorter list. We can make it a contest.
Anyone have any examples?
Nobody has been anywhere near Somalia in years. It seems to have reverted to an islamist form of wild absurdity.
The only way normalcy will return to Somalia is if some other country occupies it and treats it as a colony for a generation or two....
I do not Blame the Clinton Administration. There is nothing that can be done to "fix" Somalia short of brutal martial law. The Clinton Administration erred while providing Somali humanitarian aid resulting in the loss of brave US soldiers and was much more cautious with military lives afterward.
The wiki discussion of their history is interesting. They’ve been independent over 40 years, and Wiki refers to them as recovering from colonialism. In fact, the only time they’ve even approached some form of civilization was during the colonial period.
Bush 41 went in with force and had a good food distribution program underway. Clinton wanted to make a name for himself as a military man and changed the mission. We left with tail between our legs. They first tasted blood, our blood because of Clinton chickened out and failed to support our guys. He is such a loser,
I am thinking, be back next Christmas maybe.
President Bush 41 Somalia food distribution was not going to change that cesspool. President Clinton upped the ante to ‘nation building”, it cost us the lives of our soldiers, and he pulled us out. President Clinton’s Administration is definitely responsible for bad policies but today’s Somalia situation can not be blamed on Presidents Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43, or the United States. Somalia is a dump and the victim is the perpetrator, Somalis.
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