The hidden victory

Three countries that contain almost a hundred million of the poorest people on the planet are now at war with each other. Any war is bad news, particularly when it affects the poor and desolates. But this one could deliver the best piece of news in a long time. Last week the Ethiopian army took Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, and the Islamic Courts Union (UIC), the closest thing to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, retreated south towards the border with Kenya where it met Kenyan troops that barred the way. It is an important victory in the war on radical Islam, one which the MSM is not particularly interested in reporting about. But it isn't over yet. Thousands of Islamic fighters still pose a threat in the capital and the tide could still turn against the Ethiopians should the Islamists launch an Iraqi style insurgency.

The UIC is a nutty bunch. A regime that implemented an edict saying that those who do not pray five times a day will be beheaded, is worthy of the same fate as the Taliban and Saddam's Ba'ath regime met. The lesson is clear: Islamists can be vanquished if force is used without hesitance and inhibitions. As Jack Kelly recently wrote "Ethiopia won in short order because it unapologetically used force against vicious people who understand only force. They killed all the people they needed to kill without worrying overmuch about collateral damage, and not at all about world opinion. And though the Ethiopian soldiers are Christians, they were hailed as liberators in this overwhelmingly Muslim country."

Let's hope Ethiopia succeeds in crushing the Islamists. It has already taught us the most important lesson in the war for the free world as new fronts are sure to be opened.

Comments

[Papa Ray]

Two things:

1. Ethiopia is pulling it's troops out in short order. They have no intention of getting tied up in an insurgency or what ever word you want to describe what is about to start. They have big troubles brewing back at home.

2. Any "Peacekeeping" forces put in, will have no better chance of rooting out the UIC there, than we have had in Iraq, unless the peacekeeping forces are allowed to conduct operations, without the world media reporting how many civilians they kill each day.

And they can keep the UN from micromanaging the Military leadership on the ground.

And of course, they don't run out of money to pay the troops and have to withdraw before a strong enough government can keep the warlords in check.

Papa Ray
West Texas
USA