U.S. Aiding Somalia in Its Plan to Retake Its Capital

New York Times ^ | March 5, 2010 | Jeffrey Gettleman

[SunkenCiv]

The Somali government is preparing a major offensive to take back this capital block by crumbling block, and it takes just a listen to the low growl of a small surveillance plane circling in the night sky overhead to know who is surreptitiously backing that effort. Forces of the transitional government in Somalia control only a part of the capital, Mogadishu. "It's the Americans," said Gen. Mohamed Gelle Kahiye, the new chief of Somalia's military, who said he recently shared plans about coming military operations with American advisers. "They're helping us." That American assistance could be crucial to the effort by Somalia's government to finally reassert its control over the capital and bring a semblance of order to a country that has been steeped in anarchy for two decades. For the Americans, it is part of a counterterrorism strategy to deny a haven to Al Qaeda, which has found sanctuary for years in Somalia's chaos and has helped turn this country into a magnet for jihadists from around the world... "This is not an American offensive," said Johnnie Carson, the assistant secretary of state for Africa. "The U.S. military is not on the ground in Somalia. Full stop." ...Most of the American military assistance to the Somali government has been focused on training, or has been channeled through African Union peacekeepers. But that could change. An American official in Washington, who said he was not authorized to speak publicly, predicted that American covert forces would get involved if the offensive, which could begin in a few weeks, dislodged Qaeda terrorists.

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

surprising move from Zero's administration.

• CIA chief visits Kenya over terrorism
• Push for Islamic Courts in Kenya Alarms Christians

[Captain Kirk]

If think this lame-brained move by Obama to get us deeper into the Somalia mess is a “surprise” you were not listening to him in the debates when he ran to the right of McCain on Afghanistan.

[Lokibob]

But are the people of Somalia going to help us take our capitol back?

.....Bob

[b4its2late]

Al Qaeda needs to be defeated no matter where it is.

[SunkenCiv]

Yes, he did that, but it took him the better part of a year to actually do anything in Afghanistan. It’s an on-the-job training program for someone who couldn’t sell watermelons if you gave him the state troopers to flag down traffic. ;’)

[Captain Kirk]

but it took him the better part of a year to actually do anything in Afghanistan.

Not true. Obama began keeping his Afghan promise to escalate right out the box. The initial Obama surge in Afghanistan begin in February 2009. Obama kept his foreign policy promises. The world policers have thoroughly dominanted both parties for decades. When it comes to foreign policy, ain't a dime's worth of difference between the two wings of the Demopublican bird of prey.