It’s a victory of sorts but there’s no indication that Somalia will ever be anything more than a failed state. It’s still the perfect target for Islamist infiltration.
Somalia’s Islamic movement abandoned Mogadishu yesterday and clan militiamen poured into the streets to take control of the capital, as government forces backed by Ethiopia surrounded the capital.
Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, the executive leader of the Council of Islamic Courts, said he had ordered his forces out of Mogadishu to avoid bloodshed in the capital. Residents living south of Mogadishu said they saw convoys of Islamic fighters driving south. In Mogadishu, gunfire echoed through the streets and hundreds of gunmen, who had fought for Koranic rule just hours earlier, took off their Islamic uniforms and submitted to the command of clan elders who ruled the capital before the Islamic courts took over in June.
The city of two million was reported to be in a state of chaos and panic as clan militia began looting Islamic courts’ bases and buildings belonging to Islamic courts officials, witnesses said.
Many of the combatants didn’t flee. They just switched sides like they have countless times before. And they’ll switch again too. Don’t think for a minute that we’ve heard the last of this movement in Somalia.
ethioBLOG: Even if they fought honorably, they would have lost anyway. It is simple. Their ideals are rotten and stupid. You can’t tell me how to live my life. Trying to dictate ones way of life is inherently stupid and unworkable. I don’t agree with Mr. Bush on many things (many on approach, not what he is trying to bring about), but I will echo his phrase, “let freedom reign”.
Hot Air:There should be no allowance for any cease-fire talks until the Islamists are well and truly crushed. Keep the UN and the Arab League as far from this fight as possible until it’s truly finished. The Ethiopians and the transitional Somali government forces, fighting together against the Islamists in spite of a history of war between Ethiopia and Somalia, should not make the same mistake Israel and the US have made in Lebanon and Iraq and Afghanistan. They should win the fight outright and dictate terms to the surviving Islamists. Foreign fighters should either be imprisoned and tried for their crimes or, well, imprisoned and tried for their crimes. Anything less, and the Islamists will go to ground and come back with an insurgency in a few months or a year.
JammieWearingFool: Maybe we can take a lesson from the Ethiopians. Be ruthless, brutal and spare no mercy to the enemies of mankind. These Islamists talk a tough game and have no compunction about slaughtering innocent people. But when you stand up to them and smack them in the face, they run like the cowards they are.
Euphoric Reality: The biggest lesson to be learned from this tempest in a teapot in East Africa is that there is never a substitute for victory, and we must have the resolve to truly win, and not compomise our effort with a willingness to just get by (read “keep the peace”).
Blackfive: Off the top of my head, I would say that Ethiopia is not afflicted with a pernicious and defeatist media machine that is capable of manipulating public opinion, and even if it was, it doesn’t look like the Ethiopian president would give a damn in any case. The word that comes to mind is resolve. When a leader resolves to send men into battle, he is obligated to withstand the criticism of the media so that the troops who are withstanding hostile fire from the enemy are able to decisively defeat that enemy. This is the area where the President, Rumsfeld, and the Generals have been found wanting. Wars cannot be won with restrictive ROEs that allow the enemy to use our self imposed limitations against us. If the situation dictates that ROEs of this type must be employed, then it has not yet reached a point where combat troops are warranted.
A Blog for All: The swift fall of the Islamists from power in Mogadishu should be correctly seen as a big victory against the Islamists and the jihadis. The problem will be the follow up as the Islamists simply melted into the background where they can still cause trouble - watch for an insurgency operation to unfold in coming weeks as the Islamists are not going to give up the grip that easily. They saw their forces destroyed when engaging in combat operations with the Ethiopian army, but know that if they follow the Iraqi model, they could be successful at creating a perception of stalemate that favors them.
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Military, Terrorism
December 28th, 2006 at 12:22 pm
Ethiopia deserves much praise for their courageous…
Bill Roggio (via Hot Air) reports that Ethiopia has routed the Mogadishu….