What Do We Know About America In Somalia?

There are few hard facts about the US bombing of a Somalian village because US intel thought suspected terrorists might be hiding out there -- a political decision if there ever was one. And one made on the eve of announcing we're gonna send more soliders into Iraq. Thank you, Mr. Gates and Mr. Bush.

Here we go, facts-are-us:

• The US bombed a Somalian village. Reuters reports that "an AC-130 plane rained gunfire down on the southern village of Hayo late on Monday... Hayo is in the southern tip of Somalia between Afmadow and Doble."
• It wasn't just one strike or one village. "Col. Shino Moalin Nur, a Somali military commander, told the AP by telephone late Tuesday that at least one U.S. AC-130 gunship attacked a suspected al-Qaida training camp Sunday on a remote island at the southern tip of Somalia next to Kenya."
• Civilians have died; terrorists, maybe. We don't know how many dead, or who they are. Press reports are full of vague reports from unnamed sources and "we think so-and-so might have been killed" and "maybe x people died." Sorry, that doesn't cut it.
• The last time our military was openly fighting in Somalia, 18 soliders were killed (1993) and were later memorialized in a movie, Black Hawk Down. The Financial Times called it "a disastrous peacekeeping mission that ended in 1994." What they don't say is that the mission began under Bush The Elder.
• The US aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower is now stationed off the coast of Somalia and "has launched intelligence-gathering missions over Somalia."
• The President of Somalia, who hasn't set foot in the country for 40 years until now -- despite a two-year-old provisional, western-sanctioned government -- said that it's quite all right for the US to bomb suspected terrorists. With a US intelligence service that's the laughing stock of the world, post Iraq invasion, we're killing "suspects"?
• The US has reportedly been helping those same warlords that have fomented unrest since the early '90s -- the same warlords who prevented the provisional government from getting a foothold -- the same warlords who were being shut down by Islamic solidarity.
• We've ticked off our allies. Again. Criticism from the European Commission, Italy, UN Secretary General.

According to the NY Times:

America’s recent forays into Somalia have tended to backfire. President Clinton abruptly curtailed a large American-led aid mission in the 1990s after the 18 soldiers were killed, leaving the country in a swirl of chaos and bloodshed, where much of it remains.

Then, last summer, American efforts to finance a band of Mogadishu warlords as a bulwark against the growing Islamist movement stumbled when many Somalis learned of the hidden American hand and threw their support behind the Islamists.

With the Pentagon still snakebitten by its experience in Somalia — rendering a ground offensive in the lawless country unpalatable — there was little the thousands of American soldiers and marines stationed in neighboring Djibouti could do to track down the Qaeda suspects.

Africa is not the wild west. Our government can't arbitrarily murder people here, at home, just because they are "suspects" -- so why does Bush think he can do this abroad? Is this action the logical outcome of a unitary executive who thinks he has carte blanche to "wage war against terrorists" 'round the world? And with the murder of suspects and civilians, how are we any different from those we are supposed to be fighting?

Also, see US In Somalia (US Politics), US Bombs Somalia (?!) (World News), Airstrike Rekindles Somalis’ Anger at the U.S. (NY Times)

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