AMERICA, PRAY LEAVE SOMALIA TO ITS OWN DEVICES

The recent dramatic rout of the U.S.-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia’s forces in the Somali capital of Mogadishu by militias loyal to the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab group and the latter’s ensuing rapid expansion into much of southern Somalia has caught the world by surprise. Thus, the Islamists’ sudden rise as a force in the land to be reckoned with has alarmed the U.S. that Somalia might become “a haven for terrorists.” Faced with the unwelcome prospect of an Islamic jihadist takeover in Somalia, America has rushed in with munitions and logistics to the tune of $5 m to bolster the tottering TFG, headed by interim president Sheikh Shariif Sheikh Ahmed (1) Admittedly, 5m is peanuts by American standards, but it signals the beginning of a sliding slope--American advisors have a way of following American money for arms, a phenomenon that foreign policy wonks refer to as “Mission Creep” (MC).

The driving force behind the U.N-U.S. obsession to re-create a central government for Somalia is rooted in the West's fear that: 1. stateless--and therefore, in their stated view, lawless--Somalia might become a "Nursery" for "Terror International," especially given the various cells of al-Qaeda-linked jihadists lurking in Somalia, and in the recesses of rogue nations, like nearby Yemen, and 2. the global nightmare of Somali highwaymen on the high seas will end only when Somalia enjoys a government with sufficient resources to patrol its coastal lines. The former is especially urgent, they argue, in view of the fact that the al-Qaeda-connected-al-Shabaab Somali terrorists already control large swaths of Somalia, including much of the capital of Mogadishu. Let's speak to each of these concerns individually.

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