On the run again:
Losing their support in Pakistan, Al Qaeda operatives are moving to the Horn of Africa. Dozens of al Qaeda fighters and a handful of commanders have fled Pakistan for Somalia and Yemen in the last few months. They’re leaving their former stronghold in the tribal region of Pakistan after months of increased drone attacks in the region have disrupted their local networks killing. 11 of 20 top Al Qaeda commanders. The Pakistani Army’s recent campaign against Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists has further threatened Al Qaeda’s local network.
Couple of things here. First, it’s a lot easier finding people – and blowing them up – in Somalia than in the mountains of Pakistan. Second, is it too early yet to call it the Swat Awakening?
I’d be very careful before saying that it’s a lot easier to find them in Somalia and Yemen than Pakistan. Yeah, the land is flatter, but it’s also land that we’ve barely begun to look at. Nevertheless, it’s a welcome development.
Of course, it all comes down to the problem of Somalia: who wants to run it, who can, and how much will it cost us to have them run it, since we sure as hell don’t want to? I say split it up into Ethiopian and Kenyan zones, pay them whatever it takes to keep control, and make some airfields for those drones we need. It would be a good idea for the future as well, since we haven’t been able to do jack against Sudan largely because of a lack of a beachhead in Africa. This might be our chance to do some good in a region that has been neglected for too long.
There are only so many dysfunctional states left for them to run to, and the number is getting smaller every day. Thus the importance of rolling up places like Afghanistan, and yes, Iraq.
And it’s good to see we had the backbone to pursue them into Pakistan. And even better to see some push back from Pakistanis themselves.
There was a very good reason to call it the GLOBAL war on terrorism….
Nope, no “Swat Awakening,” mainly because Afghanistan and Pakistan are still intensely tribal cultures.
There’s at least a chance that a given group of Iraqis would consider themselves such, as opposed to their tribe or clan. The above two, not so much.
As for Somalia: give it back to Italy. No, I’m (nearly) serious. We should let Europe re-colonize the bloody continent over again, and this time don’t leave until the locals can run things without slaughtering each other.
Casey,
Africans were perfectly capable of running things without slaughtering each other just as much as Europeans were perfectly capable of being respectful of their colonies’ civil rights and democracy. As long as the oil, coltan, bauxite, and diamonds keep coming, we don’t worry that much about the Somalias, Cameroons, or Guinea-Bissaus of the world.
So why, pray tell, are they unable to do so now? Did they unlearn them under the rule of those bad old colonialists?
Thank you, McGehee. Apparently jon thinks that Belgium was once in charge of the entire continent.
Actually it wasn’t Belgium that was in charge of the Congo, but a private corporation controlled by Leopold II. Under his control, the population was enslaved, their numbers halved, and the nation was left poorer. Sure, that’s pretty much the extreme example of European genocidal criminal behavior on the continent, and there are plenty of examples of genocidal behavior before, during, and after colonization had its time, but the fact remains that brutalizing a population, playing favorites with some tribes, stealing anything worth anything, and then leaving the place armed to the teeth generally has an outcome that could be generously called “poor”. As for unlearning, it seems that those Europeans unlearned principles such as democracy and human rights whenever convenient. I know I’m probably pissing on all of Western Civilization going back further than Plato and Abraham to suggest that, but I’d be pissing on reality if I couldn’t point that out.
Which excuses Africa’s current set of horrific regimes … how?
jon: Ooooh! Oooh! (spends a long time writing an impassioned diatribe)
McGehee: Gently plucks one card from the bottom of the house…
{/snerk}
jon, your last post is, well, sad… Aside from the Congo, can you name anything remotely resembling genocide, apart from Chaka Zulu’s Mfecane (my bad, that’s before the imperialist exploiters took over) or the Rwanda/Burundi slaughter? (my bad II, that’s after the imperialist exploiters left)
And -with respect to democracy- have you followed up on how well South Africa is doing these days?
It’s nice to see your admission that you’re “pissing on all of Western Civilization going back further than Plato and Abraham,” but I’m still fuzzy on the whole “NOT condeming Europeans as miserable greedy murdering bastiches” is “pissing on reality.”
Bottom line, Most African countries are purely incapable of considering any model more sophisticated than simple tribal dominance.
Then again, I’m the primitive non-multicultural-sort who thinks that anyone south of the Rio Grand has serious trouble with self-governance, despite their alleged advantage of derived European culture…
Holmes, you want the short list of civilized countries? Very simple: the English-speaking peoples, Japan, Korea, and parts of Europe. It’s just that simple. The rest of the world is still obsessed with murdering their neighbors, or can’t even deliver the fracking mail.
McGeehee, I never said it did excuse Africa’s current set of horrific regimes. But I did imply that the European colonists were largely responsible for getting them their power and guns.
Casey, South Africa isn’t doing too terribly. It’s no paradise like other formerly-enslaved places such as Georgia or Albania, but considering where they were twenty years ago I’d say they’ve made some decent progress. Imperfect as all get out, but I wouldn’t give up on them entirely.
Some former colonies do better than others. India is doing pretty well. Pakistan not so well. Vietnam can’t decide whether or not it hates us, the French, or the Chinese more, and is probably better for it right now. Algeria isn’t anywhere I’d like to be, but they’re better for the French leaving or it would be another Taliban state. Libya? Still a mess. The British Palestinian Mandate? It was a good thing those terrorists made their homeland (after buying much of the land) before those other terrorists did. Lebanon? Not great, with occasional flareups of horrifying. Most of South America isn’t in bad shape now that the Maoists discovered capitalism, though the drug trade is killing Colombia (legalize that crap already to stop the death squads and the rebels from their funding source.) Mexico, the nearest country South of the River Grande, contrary to the opinions of many isn’t going to collapse into anarchy anytime soon. But the bulk of the countries in Africa were bled dry, used as proxies in the Cold War, and are generally not doing so well. Some of that is tribal, kind of like what happened in Yugoslavia, and much of that can be solved in much the same way as the former Yugoslavian countries did: give everyone a homeland, no matter how ridiculous. The need to lash out for defensive purposes ended, and the killing of neighbors ended with that.
Then you have no point.
McGehee, the point is he got to remind us to blame Europeans for non-European’s problems. This must always be done.