What do Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan have in common? Although it’s true that the United States has conducted recent military interventions in all of them, the more fundamental answer is that they are all artificial countries. That is, they are each made up of feuding ethno-sectarian groups or tribes. And perhaps the instability …
Continue reading “Political Decentralization Might Help in Conflict-Ridden Countries”
Author’s note: I’m in the middle of moving, so I won’t be writing this week. I needed a break anyway. I’ll be back on Monday, December 18. In the meantime, this space will feature some past articles of note. Back at the end of 2006 Ethiopia invaded Somalia at the behest of the United …
Continue reading “They Never Learn”
Kenya’s ill-advised incursion into Somalia on Oct. 16 after a rash of kidnappings in the tourist paradise of Lamu will most likely lead to a long and expensive quagmire. The escalation will further destabilize a region already reeling from war, piracy, famine, and international terrorism. Kenya insist that it not at war with Somalia but …
Continue reading “History Repeats Itself With Somalia Invasion”
NATO’s “victory” in Libya has sown many seeds of possible future calamity. But none is fraught with as much danger as providing a new “war on the cheap” model for Western nations that have fallen on hard economic times. Although the very real possibility of civil war, tribal conflict, or an Islamist state in Libya …
Continue reading “Libya Victory Portends Endless Intervention”
For the second year in a row, U.S. President Barack Obama has waived a congressionally mandated ban on military aid for four countries that use child soldiers. The four countries that will continue to receive military assistance despite the use of child soldiers in their armed forces include Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), …
Continue reading “Obama Waives Aid Curbs on Militaries Using Child Soldiers”
The killing of four Americans by Somali pirates was tragic. No excuse exists for murder. But at the risk of seeming harsh, I believe there is much contributory negligence to go around. According to associates, the victims, afloat bourgeois missionaries and adventure-seekers, were well aware of the dangers of the waters near the pirate haven …
Continue reading “Should the US Government Encourage Potential Darwin Award Winners?”
By mid-2007, the 50,000 Ethiopian troops that invaded Somalia in late 2006 found themselves increasingly bogged down, facing much fiercer resistance than they had bargained for as Somalis of all stripes temporarily put aside their differences to stand together against the outside invader. As the military incursion turned increasingly sour, then-U.S. Undersecretary of State for …
Continue reading “WikiLeaks Reveals US Twisted Ethiopia’s Arm to Invade Somalia”
Chuck Pena on another US creation: al-Shabaab
The synchronized and unconscionable bombings by the Somali group al-Shabab – of people doing nothing more than watching soccer games in Kampala, Uganda – counterintuitively illustrates why the United States should not be fighting Islamic militancy worldwide. Many of America’s editorial writers are screaming for stepped-up U.S. counterterrorism strikes in Somalia against the group. This …
Continue reading “Soccer Bombing Should Not Prompt More US Meddling”
Although the Clinton administration’s debacle in Somalia in the early 1990s is most famous – as depicted in the Hollywood blockbuster Black Hawk Down – more recent American meddling by the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations may have worse long-term effects. Even though George H.W. Bush’s and Clinton’s original intentions of protecting international …
Continue reading “Making Unneeded Enemies in Somalia” 
