 |
 |
 |
 |
| |
|
|||||
|
||||||
|
The “war of choice” in Iraq has almost bankrupted corporate America. Billions of dollars are being poured into Afghanistan and Pakistan on a daily basis with little or no dividends in return. The cost of human suffering to both fighting soldiers and innocent Afghan civilians is incalculable. And yet, the US and its Western accomplices in the “war against terror” are steadfast to take the fight to the Taliban terrorists and its Al Qaeda affiliates despite their glaring failures. If America’s sole objective of intervening in Iraq and Afghanistan is to rid terrorism in this world and spare more 9/11s, Somalia is no exception. Somalia’s Al Shabaab and its allies has officially become the host of international terrorists. Suicide bombings, political assassinations and car bombings, the hallmarks of Al Qaeda terror tactics, have now become daily occurrences in Mogadishu and other terrorist controlled areas in the south. This week’s brutal killings of innocent medical graduates and their lecturers, journalists and government ministers in Mogadishu’s Shamo hotel is a clear indication of how the country is sliding deeper into more chaos and bloodshed. What started as a civil war in the early nineties after the ouster of the late Mohamed Siyad Barre has now become a vicious terrorist war against Somali civilians. If Afghan government and its civilians have been given the US protection against ruthless Taliban, why Somalis have been left to the mercy of equally ruthless Al Shabaab and its Hisb El Islam terrorist allies who slaughtered more civilians since the Ethiopian invasion in Somalia in late December 2006? Is Somali blood cheaper than its counter parts in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere? The international community has helped Democratic Republic of Congo come out its civil war by deploying thousands of UN blue berets sanctioned by the UN Security Council. Liberia was liberated from the whim of Charles Taylor’s ruthless and limb-chopping militia. The British army have intervened Sierra Leone in the nineties to protect civilians from the warring militia. The list of international interventions goes on and on. What did Somalis do wrong to deserve this international isolation and indifference? Is it because some Moryaan Somali fighters killed 18 US rangers in the bungled 1993 Operation Restore Hope, and that what we see today is America avenging on that? Is it because we have no proven black gold reserves that nobody cares about us whether we go to hell or survive? Or is it because that we first started killing each other for no apparent reasons that our civilians don’t deserve to be protected from Al Shabaab and other terrorists groups who wreak havoc to south and central Somalia, particularly Mogadishu? There are many questioned unanswered as far as Somalia is concerned. Even our Arab brothers have abandoned us. With its national institutions already destroyed by 19 years of non-stop civil war, including its armed forces, police and other security apparatus, Somalia cannot simply come out of this war by its own self. The few thousands of Ugandan and Burundian so-called peacekeepers (as if there is a peace to keep in Somalia) sent in by IGAD and AU to protect the government and its non-existent institutions cannot even protect themselves from the brutal Al Shabaab terrorist daily attacks, let alone the general public. They are confined to their barracks and the only time they take action is when firing their heavy artillery indiscriminately against civilian targets, apparently in self-defense as happened in Bakara market a few months back where scores of innocent shoppers and traders have lost their lives. Mohamed F. Yabarag Related articles:* No Where Is Safe! A Heinous Act of Mass Murder in Mogadishu We welcome the submission of all articles for possible publication on WardheerNews.com
|
