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2007-04-29 Africa Horn

PM says most fighting ended, many hostile areas overrun

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Posted by Fred 2007-04-29 00:00|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 The incessant shelling also started a fire at warehouses stocked with building material and paints, sending thick plumes of smoke above the Industrial Road area of factories.

Really? There are warehouses and factories in Somalia that are stocked with goods? How is that possible? I am surprised that there is anything working, existing or operating even a government - certainly not a society. If Iraq is on the cusp of incurable anarchy (ala Taliban in 96) then Somalia must be something out of a Mad Max movie set.

Posted by Jack is Back!">Jack is Back! 2007-04-29 12:20|| 2007-04-29 12:20|| Front Page Top

#2 Meanwhile, the battles have devastated neighbourhoods of Mogadishu, forcing about half of its residents to flee. The UN refugee agency said on Wednesday that the exodus of nearly 340,000 people was fast turning the seaside capital into a ghost city.

Good, can't hide among the innocent civilians.

Posted by Redneck Jim 2007-04-29 12:27|| 2007-04-29 12:27|| Front Page Top

#3 The Somali Premier urged any clan militia who had joined the ranks of Islamist gunmen and foreign jihadists in fighting the government to return to their homes and stay there until his administration could incorporate them into a new national army.

Idiot.

Posted by Redneck Jim 2007-04-29 12:31|| 2007-04-29 12:31|| Front Page Top

#4 The Ethiopians are doing it right - utterly crushing all opposition with heavy firepower. That's the mistake we made in Iraq - failing to utterly crush the opposition. Now we have an "insurgency", fed by various groups for their own purpose, all attacking those that want to get on with their lives. I hope the Iraqi Army takes the Turkish Army as their example - absolutely refusing to allow any type of government but a secular democracy to take root.

Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot 2007-04-29 14:18|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2007-04-29 14:18|| Front Page Top

#5 The Ethiopians are doing it right - utterly crushing all opposition with heavy firepower. That's the mistake we made in Iraq - failing to utterly crush the opposition. Now we have an "insurgency", fed by various groups for their own purpose, all attacking those that want to get on with their lives. I hope the Iraqi Army takes the Turkish Army as their example - absolutely refusing to allow any type of government but a secular democracy to take root.

Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot 2007-04-29 14:18|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2007-04-29 14:18|| Front Page Top

#6 Don't forget, OP, that Somalia is also cut-off from supplies, since boats to and from Yemen don't seem to float very well. Landward, you have Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti. Maybe Sudan can help the "brave Minutment." I don't remember if they touch.

Posted by Jackal">Jackal 2007-04-29 21:16|| http://home.earthlink.net/~sleepyjackal/index.html]">[http://home.earthlink.net/~sleepyjackal/index.html] 2007-04-29 21:16|| Front Page Top

#7 OP: That's the mistake we made in Iraq - failing to utterly crush the opposition.

"Shock and awe", which is no more than a new name for the age-old decapitation strategy (i.e. take out the king, and his kingdom is yours for the taking), doesn't work in an age of nationalism and universal education (i.e. indoctrination). What we've seen in Iraq is that you may well have to kill off a fair chunk of the combat-age males before any kind of peaceful occupation is possible. 8 million dead Germans (around 10% of the German population) in WWII were the price of a peaceful post-war occupation.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2007-04-29 21:23|| http://timurileng.blogspot.com]">[http://timurileng.blogspot.com] 2007-04-29 21:23|| Front Page Top

#8 What we've seen in Iraq is that you may well have to kill off a fair chunk of the combat-age males before any kind of peaceful occupation is possible. 8 million dead Germans (around 10% of the German population) in WWII were the price of a peaceful post-war occupation.

I believe that this equation will also apply to Islam as a whole.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-04-29 23:39|| 2007-04-29 23:39|| Front Page Top

23:47 USN, ret.
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