Somalis Thrown To the
Wolves
Abdul Guuled
The warlords who have
blundered Somalia for the last 16 years are now getting
another chance to go at it.
Somalia's Islamic courts
(IC) are known to have varying opinions among them;
after all they are a collection of various groups who
united in the face of the misery their people were
facing under warlord rule.
Yes, there are members in
them that sympathize with Al-Qaeda and there is nothing
unique in that, you can find similar sentiments in
leaderships of many Muslim dominated countries. It is
not in the Islamists best interest to ally themselves
with a terrorist group and that's apparent in their
continual insistence that they (as a collective) have
nothing to do with Al-Qaeda. And When John D.
Negroponte, the director of U.S national intelligence
was asked if the Islamic Courts are the "next Taliban"
he said. “I don’t think I’ve seen a good answer.” (Karen
DeYoung, Washington Post "Al-Qaeda's Influence, Possible
War With Ethiopia Are Concerns" Monday, December 18,
2006)
From the beginning, the
Warlords thrived on tribal differences to prosper and
feed their archaic ambitions. The only thing that could
unite the Somalis was their common religion and when
that came to fruition, the Warlords realized that their
days were numbered. So they were quick to capitalize on
the fears of the White House, about potential IC
involvement with terrorists. They fanned those fears at
every chance they got with the international media, and
even creating a temporary alliance with the appropriate
acronym: The Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and
Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT), they never had any intention
to restore peace and for counter-terrorism, they had to
account for the funding they were getting from the C.I.A.
Today, news comes from
Somalia that the IC were defeated and in retreat, and
Somalia capital is back into a state of anarchy much to
the delight of the warlords. In the next weeks and years
to come we will hear them quarrel among each other, much
like a pack of wolves, as to who gets the torso and who
gets ribs, as they cannibalize their nation. This will
lead into more Somali refugees fleeing abroad, and
ironically the terrorist will find a sanctuary in a
nation poorly governed, if at all, by warlords.
Fact: Terrorist bombing
of U.S Embassies happened when the Warlords were in
charge.
An ideal situation for
Somalians would be a power sharing between the Islamists
and the western backed warlords, the Islamist will keep
the warlords corruption in check and the warlords will
bring western funding and recognition. This will create
the first well functioning government in Somalia, but I
doubt it is in the interest of Zenawi, who currently
receives funding to fight ant-western interests, to
ensure that the funding continues indefinitely Zenawi
should want to force the Islamist to insurgency, this
will guarantee U.S funding for years to come. This
analysis is consistent to Zenawi’s recent change of
tactics, where he initially was seeking to weaken the
Islamists, so as to force them to come to the table, but
now he is after a “total defeat”, what purpose does it
serve to force them into insurgency? When you can force
them to sit down, even hand-in couple of terrorists that
are being sheltered by a sub-group.
If Zenawi and the warlords
have their way, then there will continued justification
of American military presence in the area, there will be
continued funding of Ethiopian government by the U.S.
The TFG comprised of warlords will get bogged down in
arguments and will probably start throwing chairs at
each other again. They will soon get tired and ran back
to their tribal bases (back to square one), nothing will
have been accomplished. The losers will be the Somalian
people. Terrorist threat will remain in that part of
the world. So who benefits?
Abdul Guuled
Afeef: Aragtida qoraalkan
waxaa leh qoraaga ku saxiixan
Faafin: SomaliTalk.com |
Dec 31, 2006