Religion of Peace Starts Yet Another War

http://euphoricreality.com/2006/12/23/religion-of-peace-starts-another-war/



Religion of Peace Starts Yet Another War

Posted: 23 Dec 2006 09:54 AM CST

It's Christmas and I hardly have the heart to write about another on-going war, courtesy of the Religion of Peace. But yes, they are at it again. This time, in two of the most pathetic countries on the planet: Ethiopia and Somalia. Could there be two more miserably poor, disease-ridden, down-trodden, sad nations on earth?!

I remember as a kid I used cry watching those documentaries on starving kids and babies in Ethiopia. And for only 39 cents a day, I could help feed one child and buy medicine. So there I was, at twelve and thirteen years old, baby-sitting for $1.50 per hour, sending my big bucks to Ethiopia. What a pathetically sad and nightmarish place.

Well, if there was any way to make those two nations any worse, the Muslims have found it, of course. The local jihad, bringing hell on earth to a neighborhood near you.

Somalia's Ethiopia-backed forces and Islamic fighters have clashed near the seat of government in Baidoa for a second day with both sides claiming inflicting massive casualties.

A day after European Commission humanitarian chief Louis Michel said he had secured both sides' commitment to observe a truce and resume peace talks, the Islamic movement chief called on Somalis to join the war against Ethiopian forces.

The government said Wednesday it had killed "hundreds" of rival fighters and wounded hundreds while the Islamists said they had killed at least 70 enemy combatants in the deadly assaults. None of the figures could be independently confirmed.

Hundreds of terrified civilians continued fleeing from the frontline into safer areas. Fighting erupted early Wednesday, hours after the expiry of an Islamist ultimatum for Ethiopian forces to pull out or face major attacks.
Deputy Defence Minister Salad Ali Jelle said the army was winning the fight, which erupted when Islamists raided the two garrisons. "We have repelled the terrorists and have killed hundreds . they have suffered a lot and won't ever forget," he said.

The Islamists, who control much of southern and central Somalia and are accused of links to Al-Qeada, have already declared a holy war on Ethiopian forces and claimed first blood in recent skirmishes with Addis Ababa troops.

The government officials said fugitive terror suspects and foreign fighters were bolstering the Islamists.

Joy to the world.

Peace on earth to men.

UPDATE: Why is the Islamic squabbling in bumble-duck Africa of any importance to America? Read this analysis by Douglas Farah (excerpt in the extended entry):



The spread of this war is by design, not accident. In his statement earlier this week (as translated by Laura Mansfield) al Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri went out of his way to signal support for the Islamist movement in Somalia, saying Brothers in Islam and jihad in Somalia, know that you are the southern garrison of Islam, so don't allow Islam to be attacked from your flank and know that we are with you and the entire Muslim Umah is with you.

The conflict is designed not only to establish a space that can be defined as the beginning of the Islamist Caliphate, a necessary physical space from which to launch succeeding holy wars against the unbelievers. It is also aimed at creating widespread instability in a fragile region in East Africa, rich in mineral resources with weak and corrupt central governments.

Osama bin Laden has spoken in the past of the need to open a third front with a ground war that will bleed the U.S. military dry. He has argued that the al Qaeda front in Iraq, coupled with the front in Afghanistan/Pakistan, has stretched the U.S. military to its limits. A third front would make triumph in the other two more likely.

The stark disinterest of the United States and most European powers, or serious efforts by other African nations to face the consequences of an Islamist triumph in Somalia is striking and dangerous. The consequences of a regional war are difficult to calculate, but they will be serious.

Ethiopia is going to wade into the conflict in significant ways, but U.S. intelligence has been alarmed by the flow of sophisticated weapons in recent months to the ICU, including surface-to-air missiles, heavy anti-tank weapons and mines, and small arms. The ICU also appears to have at least three Russian helicopter gunships, operating with hired crews, to put into operation.

It may be more than Ethiopia can handle alone, and the conflict has already drawn hundreds of foreign jihadists to Somalia. Thousands more will follow if the region becomes part of the global jihadi battleground.

The jihadists have in the past been unconcerned with governance in the areas they conquer. Sharia law, based on the Quran, is all that is needed. So they do little to consolidate bureaucratically or in a civil governance sense and unencumbered by the desire to establish a functioning government that could be recognized by the outside world. They simply move on to the next conflict, and let sharia law take care of the rest.

In conversations with U.S. officials recently, several expressed the opinion Somalia was of little interest because it has no strategic importance to the United States. It is a backwater with few natural resources and no government. My response is: What was Afghanistan in the years before 9-11? A failed state with few natural resources of international interest and little perceived strategic value.
_________________
"May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't." -General George S. Patton

Psalm 82-8: Arise, O God, judge the earth, for You inherit all the nations.