Reports out of Somalia say that 80% of the soldiers and police of the Transitional National Government have deserted their posts, giving their weapons over to militant Islamists. The same report says that most of the UN security aide to the “country” – 70% of the “government’s” budget – has disappeared through corruption.
The Ethiopian army, which swept the armed forces of the Islamic Courts Union aside two years ago, grows weary of the struggle to maintain order. Mogadishu, the Somali “capital” that in 1993 played host to the Blackhawk Down incident, is a ghost town, with half the “pre-war” population having fled to the countryside.
The UN is begging African Union “peacekeepers” from Burundi and Uganda to stay on after the Ethiopian army withdraws.
With appropriate deference to the UN, I humbly offer a counter-proposal:
- Build a wall around the place.
- Come back after 50 years and build a door.
- Wait another 50 years and open the door. Carefully.
- Re-assess.
Short of taking off and nuking the site from orbit – the only way to be sure – I believe my plan offers the world the best chance for success.
There will probably have to be some sort of bailout for the US taxi cab industry.
That’s too funny.
taxi cab bailout.
I guess I haven’t traveled in a while.
I have the distinct impression that if Billary hadn’t cut and run from there, we would still be bogged down there.
” . . . still bogged down there.” (brockkl, above.)
I’m not so sure of that. The cut & run did make things worse – but the book “Blackhawk Down” seems to hint that, had we stayed and taken a strong position and firm actions following the big shoot-em-up, the main clans might have been controllable. But I haven’t read much about Somalia beyond that, and listening to my Navy brother talk about the place makes is sound awful and not like a place we need to lose more money.
On the other hand, why were we there in the first place?
Maybe Bill did the country a favor with “cut’n'run.” I seem to recall Reagan pulling out of Beirut after we managed to stupidly lose several hundred Marines to no good purpose.
We were originally there to feed people.
Then BillC. turned it into a nation building exercise.
Then he sent in the Rangers under circumstances that bordered (on the wrong side of) criminal.
Check out Col Danny McKnight (Ret.) http://www.dannymcknight.com/index.htm
sometime if you ever get the chance. I’ve heard him twice – and he’s worth listening to.
Kipling’s “Burden”.
Your proposal is as good as any attempted to date…
b2
Lex,
I think your “Build a wall” theory is almost workable, but you forgot one critical component. Somalia is a desert. In a desert you need water, lots of it. So, with all humility, I submit a modification to step 1. “Build a wall around the place and fill it with water”. The rest of the plan should work well with that addition.
LOL, Lex’s proposal reminds me of the joke about the preferred solution for by those frustrated with our “Allies” in S. Vietnam.
1. Take the top 50% of the most highly educated/motivated and put them safely on ships in the South China Sea.
2. Bomb, strafe and nape the entire land mass until nothing remaining lives.
3. Repopulate with top 50%?
4. No, then sink all the ships.
I’m sorry, apologies to our loyal and energetic citizens of Vietnamese extraction, but I’m a bad, bad, person and couldn’t resist the joke.
Juvat
Step 2 is populate the water liberally with sharks and barracuda.
Virgil, hope you don’t live in NOLA’s second district. I don’t think newly elected Congressman Cao is going to bring you any pork.
Jim,
I don’t know. If they can tread water for 50 years at a pop….
I know, “YAT,” LOL. I would have voted for him, me being a staunch elephant and all, but I’m not in his Dist. He’s a breath of fresh air, isn’t he? From a boat person to this–what a story–waters your eyes. Did you know that his father is wheelchair bound from punishment meted out during 9 yrs in a Commie “re-education” camp? He was at his side at the victory celebration. Can’t imagine what was running through HIS mind at that moment….
What a great story all around, eh!? The land of freedom and opportunity for sure (at least for now, ask me again four or eight yrs from now.)
Well, you certainly cut to the chase.
The late Paulo Francis, a brazilian journalist used to say: “Africa has the right to self-destruction”
Based on recent (and not so recent) news from there, I agree with him.
A buddy of mine that was in Somalia during/after BHD, said that Bull sharks were just the thing. They swim ashore after prey so they’d be perfect in Lake Somalia.
Taxicab . . . bailout . . . can’t even reach the keyboard from the floor to type. Thanks. Needed that.
Can your wall be “shovel ready” within 6 months? It might qualify for the stimulus package.
Thanks virgil, didn’t know about the Congressman’s dad. Let’s hope he can win again in two years.
Cap’n,
Africa is Africa. It is a wonderful land full of promise, incredible natural beauty and amazing wealth of minerals. It is also home to the sort of human drama and pathos the Western World cannot contain. Africa is a place where Ebola, AIDs and Communism run rampant amidst tribal ideologies and rivalries.
The European colonies did the wrong thing by claiming vast tracts of land sans consideration of the tribal nature of the inhabitants. National borders are a joke, tribal lands take precedence. The EU created the problem, our wasted aid money pays for satrapies, warlords, tyrants and the odd holocaust of racial cleansing. Withhold any and all future aid and let the EU deal with the problem they created.
Call me a racist, but go read Steve Sailer’s site. Africans get a double whammy; an horrible climate with huge disease burden, and average 85 IQ.
I write as a rather feckless white guy with a three-digit IQ which nonetheless was not sufficient for success in life; Nonetheless, being smarter is, in general, better for you than being dumber.
Kinda reminds me of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdOlpkeWsts
Been thinkin’ on this one… I smell Pay Per View written all over Lex’s plan.
Danny McKnight was my Rgr Co Cdr – I remember he was focused…I only liked him after I spoke w/ colleagues and one ABC reporter in particular who described the bodies in Mogadishu too numerous to avoid stepping on after 10thMtn & Rgrs “departed the fix”…(-*