With the power of the regime, mainly concentrated in the hands of Siad Barres, his two wives -- Khadija and Dalaya -- and almost 70 of his children and grand-children, ordinary citizens began to flee the country.

This kind of family rule hastened the downfall of Siad Barre. After 21-years of repression, corruption, nepotism and clan dominance, Barre was overthrown by his one-time military adviser and ambassador to India, General Mohamed F. Aideed, who loved his mentor's cruel doctrine of rule by force and bullet.

The transition also marked the end of notorious groups; NSS (National Security Service), Hangash (military intelligence), Dhabarjebinta (military counter-intelligence), Koofiyad Casta (military police), Baarista Hisbiga (party investigators), and the Guulwadayaal (party militias). They had the exceptional powers to kill, arrest, rape or detain anyone suspected to be opposed to the Siad Barre regime. It was this time when rights groups began to record human rights abuses.

Barre's ouster and the fall of Mogadishu in 1991 created anarchy, havoc and complete devastation with the emergence of greedy warlords vying for power as massive populations were dying of hunger and from the sabotage of international efforts to restore order.

Operation Restore Hope, the greatest sacrifice the US did to the starved Somali nation, ended in the horrifying incident of Black Hawk Down.

Rapacious pirates

To rephrase Carol von Clausewitz's dictum, "War is a continuation of (Somali) politics (and power) by other means." However, modern history proves that no war ends all wars, at least, in the case of Somali experience.

Contemporary combination of Ethiopian-backed power hungry warlords, rapacious pirates, terrorists and al-Shabaab's al-Qaeda phenomenon, along with tribal mini states as well as mafia-style business community, are all the culmination of dictatorial legacy by Mohamed Siad Barre. He demolished democratic government, however weak and corrupt, but it was the direct electoral system that gave people a voice to exercise and express their free will. At least, people had the mechanism to elect and to be elected, and it was this process through which they could make a change if circumstances demanded.

All these factors -- dictatorial rule, warlords' fiefdoms and pirates' brutality -- contributed to the emergence of freelance fighters, who eventually affiliated themselves with al-Qaeda after they had secured financial assistance from outside.

Al-Shabaab came up with tactics never seen before in Somalia's war scene. Horror conducts, for instance, suicide bombings and quick trial without lawyer -- what they call mobile courts -- are not just a new phenomenon to Somali perspective, but also one of the real reasons why no group or entity in Somalia could face them.

Recently, al-Shabaab carried out their first deadly horrific attack beyond Somali borders and blasted Uganda.

At present, Somali public are staring at the international community in general and the US in particular, again and again, to help end the mayhem. Somalis need not merely US policy makers' strategy of yesterday's solution tackling today's problem, but real assistance to win this war.

"Yesterday's solution for tomorrow's problem"? Did the writer's mother not teach him that one must be polite when asking for help?

If not, Somalia will remain a failed state.