Of Rhetoric and Retreat
OR: How to talk tough then run like a scared little girl
By haystack Posted in Breaking News | Featured Stories — Comments (12) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Not able to shake my Blogsession™(a trademarked and copyrighted "Leon-ism"), we continue today with the latest news from Somalia.
In this morning's episode we learn that the Radical Extremists who would rule Somalis with the iron first of Sharia law are Disappearing in the Capitol Mogadishu.
[update:] Apparently Spiegel will NOT be outdone by the rest of the world. They suggest:
"The UIC -- which seized Mogadishu six months ago -- has introduced law and order to the capital and much of southern Somalia for the first time in 16 years. But other countries accuse the UIC of links to al-Qaida, charges it denies. Somalia and Ethiopia -- a mainly Christian nation -- have a history of troubled relations and Islamists have long called for a holy war against Ethiopian troops supporting the Somali transitional government."...
and haystack asks:
Is this any way to run a quagmire?
('tis true after all that shooting Nuns dead in the streets, pulling people out of porn movie theaters and killing them for violating Sharia, overtaking national capitols in the name of jihad and revolution, and many OTHER acts on the part of the ICU HAVE, in fact, introduced law and order-if fear of your family being annihilated is any sensible way to rule your constituents...but I digress)
More...
Here in Mogadishu, it is within hours of mess and disorder, and no one rules the capital right now as the people began to worry about what is next. Once powerful Islamic Courts’ men but just weak seem to be disappearing.
It is now the end of eight months rule by the Islamic Courts Union in central and southern Somalia, despite the ICU hardliners vowed to launch hit and run attack in Somalia.
The traffic in the city is much smaller than days before, what the ordinary people eager to hear is an immediate change with stability and security but feel more anxiety that the advancing Ethiopian backed interim government forces clash with the remnants of the ICU fighters who retreated to the capital, their last stronghold besides southern port city of Kismayo. Ethiopian forces are now advancing toward Kismayo and it is feared to fall out of hand in the coming hours.
Now Mogadishu is the main target of the Ethiopian forces along with the government troops led by some of the former warlords.
The powerful forces are coming into two directions heading to the capital in the next hours, notably the capital will be under the control of the government tomorrow, said Mohamed Dhere, a former warlord in northern Jowhar city some 90 km to the capital of Mogadishu.
Some of the residents in the capital already began fleeing their home heading to near by regions in southern Somalia.
“I would suggest the Islamic Courts officials not to order their fighters to fight inside the capital if they are doing favor for the civilians because we don’t want any more blood shed,” Abdirisak Bakistan, a local teacher in the capital said. “The Islamist officials have still chance to flee and seek refuge in the Arab world if not they should surrender to the interim government.
A separate article adds this:
The top leaders of Islamic Courts Union in the capital have announced on Wednesday that they resigned and are ready to hand over the administration to the people in Mogadishu to avoid destruction and bloodshed in the city.
After having crucial and urgent meeting tonight in the capital, the leaders of executive and Shura councils of Islamic Courts Union and deputy leader of executive council of ICU, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed and Sheik Abdirahman Janaqow resigned and issued a joint press statement over the current situation in Somalia particular in Mogadishu.
Sheik Janaqow read out the statement through the local media saying:
“Since the Islamic Courts Union came to the power in Somalia, it did a lot of significant acts to the people, particular in terms of security, justice, country’s development, improving the inner and outside politics, reopening the air and sea ports and so on,” said in the statement.
I find the dynamic here fascinating. In fact, it's deja vu all over again...like with the Taliban, so too with the Ba'athists, we find in the ICU the same spineless, shriveling, mamby pamby tough-guy-bully-in-the-schoolyard only as tough as his victims allow him to be.
Consider a few choice quotes from the beheading nun killers who (according to them):
"did a lot of significant acts to the people, particular in terms of security, justice, country’s development, improving the inner and outside politics, reopening the air and sea ports and so on"
First, there was the announcements following the ICU takeover of Mogadishu back in June, carried by Time that suggested:
"We categorically deny and reject any accusation that we are harboring any terrorists or supporters of terrorism in the areas where the courts operate," the letter says. "We share no objectives, goals or methods with groups that sponsor or support terrorism. We have no foreign elements in our courts, and we are simply here because of the need of the community we serve."
Which, frankly, doesn't square too well with Zawihiri's remarks the day before the 5th anniversary of 9/11, where he:
calls on Muslims to fight U.S. allies in Somalia, where an Islamic militia recently pushed a U.S.-backed alliance of warlords out of the capital,
Where we find ourselves today (much like that morning you woke up and decided you'd had all you were going to take from the school bully no matter HOW badly he beat you for standing up to him) facing yet another "Mouse that Roared", and when shown the elephant, takes the first opportunity to pull up his skirt and turn tail and run.
With God's mercy, the TFG and through the Ethiopian military support they have mustered, few lives will be lost, the ICU will recoil like the beheaded snake it seems wont to imitate, and Somalia may finally see a ray of hope shine down on their beleaguered country.
They deserve as much, of that there can be no doubt.
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I hereby Blogcredit™ Leon H. Wolf, he who having Blogreated™ the word "Blogsession" did see fit to grace us with it, with all right and title which I may possess to the word "Blogsession".
God being merciful, surely we won't see a BlogWave™ of blogs about this blogsession of haystack's, nor about Mr. Wolf's clever and uncanny ability to inspire the introduction of neoblogisms™ in general.
Evil men hide from jsteele, but good men are his toadies.
Until that point, I was willing to see Leon get royalties, but this is one neologism too many.
For a laugh, say it out loud:
"nee-AH-blow-jiz-um."
What we do in life echoes in eternity.
-Maximus Decimus Meridius
is that I have to get up way too early to beat you to this one haystack. Excellent summary, a Wonderblog™ indeed.
I can't wait to hear the screeching at the UN Human Rights Council and UNSC. Heh. Since Kofi's retiring perhaps he could be appointed a special envoy to the region and negotiate a peace pact.
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If "pro" is the opposite of "con", what is the opposite of "progress"?
but my problem is that my Blogsession™ keeps me up way too late...
And yes-Ko-Fee would make an AWESOME do-nothing and look pretty not-doing-it envoy.
What we do in life echoes in eternity.
-Maximus Decimus Meridius
To be completely honest, I don't see a bunch of occupying Ethiopian troops mixed in with Ethiopian backed warlords being any better for the daily reality of the people on the ground. In fact, the iron fisted approach of the Islamists is probably a twisted version of the kind of proto-authoritarianism that is almost necessary to allow development into some sort of reasonable government in the future. Without order and justice, even backwards, medieval justice, there is no way forward for a country that has known nothing but lawlessness and rule of the strong for decades. There are times and places where we cannot simply overlay a representative government upon a people, and the perpetual chaos and anarchy of Somalia is exactly such a place.
It is difficult and distasteful for me to lend any kind of support, whatsoever, to authoritarians of any stripe, but given the history of the country and its capital in particular, I would bet that old paradigm of chaos that has returned, within hours of the departure of the Islamists, will be long lasting.
I have no problem with Islamists, who have Sharia on the brain, getting their butts kicked. I was cheering when I heard the news. Their protestations of being associated with the global sphere of Islamic terrorism are absurd. However, I think you are deluding yourselves if you think that a return to the chaos will benefit the non-combatants in Mogadishu. While the news wires seem to praise the “order” that the grim faced fanatics imposed by the sword, and they do so out of ignorance and bias against anything remotely Christian or Western, there is a grain of truth to it. You simply cannot deny it when so many citizens praised their rulers even while being oppressed by them, because authority and control in Mogadishu still would look like disorder and anarchy to our western eyes. A modern totalitarian state this was not. They did not have the mechanisms in place to control people’s thoughts like we have seen in communist totalitarian societies. They merely had the power to impose their laws. The many interviews with the people who were thankful for the order can be taken at face value.
The Somalis suffer from a sort of mass, battered wife syndrome. Their culture is rent to the point where it does not exist. Their version of “Civil society” depends on how many gunmen you control. There is no foundation to build a political structure there, and anyone trying to maintain order and justice must start at the most basic political point. I would be extremely surprised if this loose coalition of anti-Islamic forces has the character to release what they have captured to the people, and does not begin tearing at each other within weeks, if not days.
We watched as starving people were kept from international aid by bands of brigands. We watched as the chaos became so severe that all commerce stopped, and its infrastructure rotted. We went into Somalia for all the right reasons, and retreated for all the wrong ones. The Islamists, for their brutality and offensive behavior, were a safe harbor for the common people who had lived to that point in a state of abject fear.
The Ethiopian offensive is good for the GWOT. It is good for America, and the West at large. It is good for the embattled state of Ethiopia, and it is good for the transitional government of Somalia and the warlords it has co-opted. It is good for many reasons, but I think it is a delusion to say that this is a good development for the common people in both the short and even in the long term. I say this not because being free from the Islamists is undesirable, but because the forces sweeping in behind them do not even offer the stability that the Islamists did. They offer the same brutality with no method to the madness. We can pray for a Somali George Washington who will seize power, and then hand it over to the people peacefully, but I am not optimistic that this in not going from the new nightmare to an older and darker one. For average skinny this is simply another ill development in an incredibly long line of them.
I really hope I’m proved completely wrong.
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem." - President Ronald Reagan
for at least 25% of the world. As long as it remains that way, we will continue to have problems with groups such as The COuncil of Islamic Courts. In the 5th Century AD, Attila The Hun was arguably one of the most enlightened and learned men to walk around Europe. We should still count ourselves quite lucky that Aettius and Theodoric fought him to a draw at Chalons.
2006 is done, 2008 is another day and another fight
1. We shouldn't want to see Islamists "getting their butts kicked". In the interest of precision, we should look forward to seeing Islamists and those who support them getting dead.
2. "battered wife syndrome" is an excellent analogy for the region in particular and Islam in general.
_______________________________
If "pro" is the opposite of "con", what is the opposite of "progress"?
From AP
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Jubilant Somalis cheered as troops of the U.N.-backed interim government rolled into Mogadishu unopposed Thursday, putting an end to six months of domination of the capital by a radical Islamic movement.Ethiopian soldiers stopped on the outskirts of town, after providing much of the military might in the offensive that shattered what had seemed an unbeatable Islamic militia. Islamic fighters fled south vowing to continue the battle.
"We are in Mogadishu," Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi declared after meeting with local clan leaders to discuss the peaceful hand-over of the city.
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If "pro" is the opposite of "con", what is the opposite of "progress"?
And those fleeing martyrs disappointing those waiting virgins.
Envisioning when all that is Left is the Right.
Cool. We are the world...
That's just what I need - to be credited with the creation of yet another word that basically amounts to a previously existing word, bastardized with the non-word "blog." :-)
Seriously, though, I want naming rights for anyone else who uses that word.
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Fnord.