June 11, 2006

My Head Is Spinning

Sunday's Washington Post has an Associated Press story about recent events in Somalia wants you to know the following: Islamic militants winning = peace.

Somalia's Future Hinges on Victors' Laws
NAIROBI, Kenya -- Islamic militants in Somalia have succeeded where the United Nations, the United States and a gallery of warlords and clan elders failed: They have, for now, brought peace to Mogadishu.

(And never mind that the AP just equated the U.S. with warlords, clan elders and the UN!)

Of course, Iraq would have been peaceful if we had only let Abu Musab al-Zarqawi win. I can see that AP story now:

Iraq's Future Hinges on Victors' Laws
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Islamic militants in Iraq have succeeded where the United Nations, the United States and a gallery of warlords and insurgents have failed: They have, for now, brought peace to Baghdad.

Afghanistan was peaceful under the Taliban. Unless you were a woman having your head blown off at the Kabul soccer stadium because you wore lipstick. And that Auschwitz was a very peaceful place. Except for the gas chambers.

But by the AP's map, you get to "peace" by letting Islamic militants win.

But having defeated a U.S.-backed alliance of secular warlords, they must unite a country whose political, religious and clan divisions have rendered it lawless, destitute and a hideout for al-Qaida terrorists and criminals for 15 years.

Which the AP apparently thinks is a good thing.

Let's continue reading:

The deaths of 18 American soldiers in 1992, made famous in "Black Hawk Down," were the result of a U.S. attempt to prop up a U.N.-backed government by taking out a powerful clan warlord.

The United Nations withdrew from Somalia in 1995, leaving the warlords to divide up the country and to extort as much money as possible from its 8 million citizens.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. agents began working informally with some of the secular warlords to monitor terrorist activity and snatch al-Qaida suspects using the country as a rear base for attacks on Western targets in Kenya and Tanzania. U.S. officials said recently that Islamic leaders in Mogadishu are sheltering three al-Qaida leaders indicted in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. The same al-Qaida cell is believed responsible for the 2002 suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya, which killed 15 people, and a simultaneous attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner over Kenya.

Somalia is now a lost battle in the War on Terror. Truthfully, it was lost more than a decade ago by the weak and feckless actions and decisions of the Clinton administration. And that has lead to this:

The fundamentalists have raided bars and destroyed video halls showing risque films. The death penalty has been imposed for a variety of offenses.

Update: Watching World Cup soccer is now banned in Somalia. No word on whether it's one of the variety of offenses for which the peaceful Islamic radicals will now behead Somalis...