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It's All America's Fault
June 1, 2006: Islamic Courts militia continue to push back warlord gunmen in Mogadishu. In three months of fighting, there have been over 2,000 casualties, including over 400 dead. Over half of those losses occurred in the last three weeks because of the Mogadishu fighting. A coalition of warlords, calling themselves the Alliance for Restoration of Peace and Counter Terrorism (ARPCT) are losing their war with the Islamic Courts. The reason is simple. The Islamic Courts (actually a coalition of eleven militias led by clerics or religiously inclined clan leaders) are more motivated, and more numerous. The Islamic Courts movement has been around for twelve years, and has grown slowly. The Islamic Courts leaders are still rapacious warlords, but they observe Islamic law (Sharia), well more or less. The bottom line is that life is easier in an area controlled by an Islamic Courts militia. For that reason, the growing number of successful businessmen in Somalia, have hooked up with an Islamic Courts militia for protection (for which they pay). At least with the Islamic Courts, when a businessman pays, he is more likely to get what he paid for. On the down side, the Islamic Courts back Islamic terrorism, al Qaeda and restrictive Islamic customs. There are several known al Qaeda leaders hiding out in Somalia. And there are dozens of foreigners (Arabs and Pakistanis) fighting for the Islamic Courts, and who appear to be there as al Qaeda trainees. The Islamic Courts are another Taliban, although they officially deny it. But many Somalis realize that, if the Islamic Courts take over, and they provide a safe base for al Qaeda, the Americans will return. Somalis know what happened in Afghanistan, and they know what really happened in Mogadishu in 1993 (a few hundred surrounded American Rangers killed over 500 Somali gunmen, wounded many more, while taking fewer than a hundred casualties themselves). While CNN declared this an American defeat, the Somalis know better. They don't want to see American Rangers again. But because Somali politics is based on clan politics, much mutual distrust and a chronic inability to work together, the Somali Taliban, and the American Rangers, may both show up and do what they are meant to do. Posted by: Steve 2006-06-01 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=154590 |