Posted by
Soldier Dad on Thursday, July 13, 2006 9:45:26 AM
Sure, President Bush and the rest of the world's leaders have a lot on their minds this week, what with North Korea's missile tantrum, Iran's continuing irascibility, escalating violence in Afghanistan, continuing violence in Iraq, violence building toward war in Israel and Lebanon, the G-8 summit, and the long roster of events that keep each government busy with what's happening domestically.
All of these things are pressing, potentially deadly concerns, but while we focus on those, we allow an equally dangerous situation to grow more stable and and secure every day. Two weeks ago, Somalia's lengthy and devastating civil war finally appeared to end with the establishment of an Islamist government that shares very much with the Taliban in its early days.
This means not just oppression for the Somali people, but a major geopolitical threat for the United States. An Islamist Somalia can not only be a haven for terrorists, but can have a potential impact on international shipping through its location across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen, another repressive haven of anti-American extremism.
It's always easiest to deal with threats before they gain the additional legitimacy that only time and power can bring and the window of opportunity for neutralizing Somalia's new government is disappearing quickly. The Bush Doctrine, for what it was ever worth, saw the value in supplanting tyranny and fundamentalism with democracy, if necessary at the point of a gun. Somalia would have been an excellent opportunity to try that again. If nothing is done, the chances are very good that we will be merely delaying, not defying, the inevitable.