Posted January 24, 2007
Somalia, Ethiopia May Become Another Iraq, Afghanistan If.....
By Thomas Kai Toteh
Senior Staff Writer
tnyantk@yahoo.com
If African Leaders or African Union did little or
nothing to intervene in the decades-old civil war in Somalia, and stop
Ethiopia’s one-sided patrol, the horn of Africa is likely to become another
battle ground for the west and Al Qaeda's.
US military officials had justified the recent attacks
on villages in Somalia, saying that Somalia’s lawless state had become a
safe haven for Al Qaeda including those responsible for the embassy bombings
in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam
in 1998 and all kinds of terrorist groups.
Observers believe the recent US aerial attacks are part of its campaign to
dislodge the Union of Islamist Courts (ICU) that overran the Somalia’s
capital six months ago. Though, Islamist militias are partly disarmed, and
are seeking the reintegration of the country, skeptics fear the direct US
involvement in the conflict could back fire.
Shortly after the aerial bombings "the lieutenant of Osama bin
Laden, Mr. Ayman Zawahiri, made statements calling on Muslims to come fight
in Somalia. Somalia, though is a new front opened to Islamist jihad, open US
onslaught could invite hundreds, if not thousands of militants from around
the world to East Africa.
Mr. Ayman Zawahiri’s call can not be taken for granted.
He and his boss, Osama bin Laden are always answered when the call.
But observers believe that Islamic militants will thaw
out away now, but will sooner or later form an insurgency as they have in
Afghanistan and Iraq.
The target will be not only Somalia, but Ethiopia, and
the entire region may turn out to be another Iraq and Afghanistan.
Pushing Somalia's Islamists out of power in Mogadishu took less than two
weeks for Somali government and Ethiopian forces.
Keeping them out and keeping the peace in the midst of what some say is
becoming an Iraq-style insurgency, could be a much more difficult job.
The African Union has
approved a plan to send nine battalions of African peacekeeping troops to
Somalia to help stabilize the country.
This is a worthy cause that
needs urgent attention and support from the international community if that
region should survive the present threat of full-fledged war between the US
and her allies and jihad militants. This is a very dangerous situation for
not only Somalia and Ethiopia, but the entire region.
