Once again we’re confronted with Somalia, that sore, benighted land on the Horn of Africa where a military operation with Black Hawk helicopters created a searing image of American defeat, even as it displayed the heroism of the 18 soldiers who lost their lives.
In the past decade, Somalia has been a stepping-off point for those who attacked U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and committed other terrorist acts. Some of the perpetrators of those attacks are believed to be harbored in Somalia. The CIA has passed cash to different gang leaders over the years, hoping for cooperation in capturing the terrorists who sought refuge in Somalia’s lawless towns.
The U.S. stayed clear of the effort to create a stable government there. The United Nations-backed government that exists now cannot even sit in the capital, much less have an impact on the country. Somalia has been in a death spiral since the early 1990s, and some would advise against investing any more capital there, where a generation has grown up under the rule of gang leaders and warlords.
But a loose group of militia leaders under the guise of the Islamic Courts Union chased the corrupt warlord militias out of Mogadishu last week. Some elements of the union–it consists of 11 autonomous, clan-affiliated courts–are believed to have ties to Al Qaeda.
The militia of the Islamic Courts Union has resisted efforts to bring in African peacekeepers, but the militia leaders have also sent a message to Washington, saying they do not want to be considered America’s enemy.
The U.S. has responded cautiously to these developments. The Bush administration announced last week that it will convene an international Somalia Contact Group and was open to talks with those in control of the capital. John Prendergast, a longtime observer of Somalia and a senior adviser to the International Crisis Group, told the Associated Press that the U.S. now may recognize that getting the groups involved in reconstructing the failed state may “provide our best antidote against extremism.”
Let’s hope there’s reason for such optimism. The early efforts at governing by the Islamic Courts Union, though, haven’t exactly been emblematic of moderation.
Militiamen on Saturday fired weapons and cut electricity to theaters to break up gatherings to view the World Cup matches. A leader of the courts union said the soccer matches were “corrupting the children” of Somalia.
Soccer as a corrupting influence. Desperate Somalia may find that the new order is even more chilling than the old chaos.
