Stirring the pot

The recent mini-war between Islamic Courts Union militias and Ethiopian forces backing the “legitimate” (in this neighborhood, legitimate is somewhat meaningless) Somali national government seemed to be winding down. The Ethiopian troops did a pretty good job of routing out and dispatching the ICU forces. The situation is about as stable as one could hope for; especially in a country that has not functioned worth a damn in a decade and a half.

So maybe I am missing something but it doesn’t seem like the best idea for us to send in AC-130 gunships (basically, this beast is plane-mounted artillery), even if we are going after some Al Qaeda henchmen. Things were getting back to “normal” (again, a relative term in the corner of the world). If I remember correctly, the Somali reaction to our last visit was less that hospitable. Again, maybe I am making a mountain out of a molehill, but this just looks bad.

UPDATE: I wrote the above last night between bouts of what must surely be cholera (XOXO – Lo). This morning I see that the US sent in a couple more missions, with the approval and even endorsement of Somalia’s President Abdullahi Yusuf. Indeed, the whole operation seems to be coordinated between the Somali government, Kenya, and Ethiopia. That makes me feel a whole lot better.