Posted on 12/20/2006 3:50:28 AM PST by Flavius
AP) Fighting broke out Wednesday between Somalia's government troops and rival Islamic militia near where an EU envoy was meeting with senior leaders to press for peace talks.
Clashes erupted 9 miles from the government garrison town of Baidoa where Louis Michel, the European commissioner for development and aid was meeting Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi and President Abdullahi Yusuf.
"Islamic militias have attacked us and the fighting is continuing," Somalia's deputy defense minister Salad Ali Jelle told The Associated Press of the clash in the strategic village of Moode Moode and opening another front.
Abdirahin Ali Mudey, spokesman for the Islamic movement, said attacks were taking place in three areas and that they had captured the village of Daynunay on the outskirts of Baidoa.
There were no immediate reports of casualties. Local residents said the fighting was between reconnaissance units from the government and Islamic fighters.
Late Tuesday, government troops and Islamic militia clashed near Idale, another front-line village northwest of Mogadishu, spokesmen from both sides said.
Ten people were killed.
Fears of a full-blown civil war have intensified in recent weeks as the government and the rival Council of Islamic Courts dismissed efforts to schedule peace talks and threatened military action. Both sides have moved fighters, fuel and ammunition to the front lines.
Michel is trying to get both sides to stop fighting and commit to high-level peace talks, according to an EU statement released Tuesday. He is expected to fly to the capital, Mogadishu, which is controlled by Islamic forces, later in the day.
Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991. The government, backed by Ethiopian troops, holds only a small area around the central town of Baidoa. The Islamic militias control the capital, Mogadishu, but have also fanned out across most of southern Somalia.
The secular government, backed by the United Nations, has rejected religious rule for Somalia, while the Muslim leaders have insisted on an Islamic government.
A war in Somalia right now would be devastating, the top U.N. official for Somalia warned last week. A drought wiped out most of the country's crops and livestock in late 2005 and early 2006, while flooding since September has destroyed tens of thousands of homes and spread more misery. Add fighting to the country's problems and as many as 400,000 refugees could flee into neighboring Kenya.
Another concern has been the Islamic movement's alleged ties to international terrorists, something Islamic leaders have repeatedly denied.
Jendayi Frazer, the top U.S. diplomat for Africa, has said al Qaeda militants are operating with "great comfort" in Somalia, providing training and assistance to the Islamic militia. Somali and Ethiopian officials have said they believe men wanted in connection with the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania now hold senior command positions within the Islamic forces.
Jelle told reporters Wednesday morning that one of the suspects in the embassy bombings, Abu Talha al Sudani, was leading the fighting near Idale, 37 miles, southwest of Baidoa.
"Sudani, a well-known terrorist, is in charge of the Islamic militias," Jelle said. "He was leading the militias who attacked us late Tuesday."
I guess the outside world didn't read the disclaimer: Each Islamic Movement is an independently owned and operated terrorist organization.
I keep thinking back to the Democratic Party's/UN's failure in Somalia in 1993. I remember the number of US Military officers and enlisted who accepted "early out" or just plain resigned in protest to Clinton. I remember how the last leftist "cut and run" has turned out. The MSM and the Left all stated that the very strategically positioned area known as Somalia was of no interest to the United States and nothing bad would ever happen because we left....
I remember that many of the officers and enlisted resigned because Clinton left the soldiers in Somalia hanging in the wind to face the Islamic radicals and thugs there. I joined the Army in 1993... Just in time to see Clinton employ M1 Main Battle Tanks, under the command of GEN Clark, against 200 members of a religious sect who didn't pay enough taxes. Bush has never used the military against our own civilians, Democrats have (Leftists, put down the acid and take notes). In addition, leftist staffers and courtiers were allowed into the War Room during the Battle of Mogadishu. These leftists cheered as US Soldiers were killed and openly showed their hatred to the military members in the room. My uncle was there and he took an early out soon after in disgust against Clinton and his ilk.
A heavy brigade or two, the Ranger/SOCOM infantry already on the ground, and a carrier strike group with a USMC landing force would have crushed the "warlords" pretty handily with few casualties. Instead we lost large numbers of under-supported Rangers/SOCOM soldiers and several helicopters. We turned Somalia over to a civil war and now it is almost totally ruled by an Islamic caliphate (Called the "Islamic Court"). Somalia is now a base for terrorism, piracy, and the "utopia" of Sharia law. All because the left was too cowardly and disorganized to stand up against the terrorists and too willing to become dhimmi. Clinton should have been impeached then.
The leftist policy that failed in Somalia is the same one the left now advocates for Iraq and Afghanistan. They never learn... Appeasement did not work in 1938 and it does not work in the 21st Century.
In war, casualties happen (I say that as I am 2 weeks out from deployment). The more wishy washy the military is employed, the more the politicians tie its hands, the more casualties WE have. Our job is to make sure it is the enemy that has the casualties ("no one ever won a war by dieing for his country"). When the US Military is hamstrung, like we were in Somalia, we get casualties. Then we are told to run away. And what happens? Does "Peace" reign when the "evil Americans" leave?? ABSOLUTLY NOT!!!! But the MSM and the left refuse to see that. They refuse to see the bodies of the dead civilians killed by our enemies. Just as when the left refused to see the carnage of Rwanda and Darfur. Instead they blame us, and/or the existence of Israel, for the carnage.
In the real world (not the "Kumbaya Land" the leftist inhabit), hitting the enemy hard and incurring few casualties, brutal as it sounds, SAVES LIVES in the long run. The lives it saves are the civilians of the affected area and our own people, including the "Kumbaya Left" who would not last a month without the protection of the US Military.
The bottom line is either we kill the masters and the ones willing to kill us and their own people to establish their "Islamic Empire" (Dar al Islam) now with relatively few casualties, or we suffer tens of millions of casualties, like we did in WWII (50 Million dead military and civilian), after we fail to stop the true killers early on.
Note to leftist trolls: the "true killers" are the Islamofascists. These are the ones who will kill you and crush all of your freedoms (for real, not like your BDS induced fantasy). I feel I must insert this for the trolls as they seem incapable of the necessary logical leaps.
People would die. These people would be the enemy and their supporters. We either kill them, or we suffer attack after attack like the Israelis do. Is that what leftists want? US bus stops and school buses blowing up?!?! US restaurants being bombed??? If we follow the leftist's last "glorious" retreat/redeployment (from Somalia), the terrorists will pack their overnight bags and come here to kill us. Is that what the left wants??
From some of their protest signs featured on zombietime.com, I would have to say 'yes'. This means either the leftists are truly traitors (aiding the enemy) or too stupid to realize the terrorists they kiss up to are the real danger and are the ones who will kill them!! Either way, it is infuriating to shout about the clear and present danger the Islamic death cult poses to the "liberals" in the West. Only to have these same "enlightened" leftists deny it and call me a NAZI as they spout off national socialist "kill the Jews" and "death to America" B.S. without seeing the incredible and tragic irony. Or maybe the leftists are just so full of hatred and bile that they no longer care what philosophy they follow as long as it is destructive to America.
FEARS of a civil war? The 'Council' has already taken over much of the country. I wonder what a real civil war looks like?
Is it just me noticing or are any 'clashes' that are occuring always includes the islamofascists?
This retired Army Officer took early retirement in 1994 along with every other Major in our building (5 total). There was no way I was staying around to be sacrificed by those who hated me and would cheer my death.
As for the problems in Somalia, let them eat each other.
I was born in 1968. In my entire life, most every war, battle, clash, mass murder and large-scale act of violence on the planet was either started, perpetuated, accelerated or encouraged by muslims.
My earliest memory of world political events is of muslims over-running the US embassy in Iran.
"Islam" is simply a euphemism for "hatred and violence."
If it were simply Somalia, I would agree with you. However, this is not.
Al Queda is running the show in Somalia, and apparently they have plans to use Somalia to expand into the rest of East Africa. There has been talk of a Greater Somalia, which includes parts of Ethiopia,The Sudan and Kenya. I think they will try outright war with Ethiopia, perhaps in concert with Eritrea.
Who gives a shit? Let the Somalis in Minnesota who Clinton brought here be sent back to fight for their own filthy country.
Good rant. Makes perfect sense to me. :)
"My uncle was there and he took an early out soon after in disgust against Clinton and his ilk..."
I left the Army then, too. Enough was definitely enough. I finished up my 20 in the National Guard and the IRR. I loved my career. Clinton and The Beast truly did hate us; they still do to this day.
Welcome to FR. See my post #11. I was an Platoon Sergeant (E-7) with 16 years when I left. We lost many officers and many enlisted with tons of experience during those years.
I hope there's something to President Bush's current rumblings of expanding our military. We are definitely going to need it to fight the Islamofascists.
I was one of them. The Dems have left a lot of dirty diapers to be cleaned up after (Somalia, Iran, Syria, you name it).
Hasn't been much of a war so far. Kind of completely one-sided. More like civil maneuvers.
Carolyn
Oh no.. don't start giving me nightmares!! I will just turn 35 in 2008. I'm a Soldier, not a politician. I just get upset when politicians and leftist "activists" cannot see the truth even when it is dropped in their lap with a bow on it.
Carolyn
"The reality is, Iraq was defeated by the US Military which succeeded despite everything Clinton did to destroy and hamstring it."
That's my take on it, too. :)
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