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A week and a half ago, David Axe of War is Boring decided to find out what was going on in Somalia. Since then he's lost his job, started a riot at a local cinema, and learned a lot about what seems to be one of the most dangerous cities in the world. It doesn't look like things are going to calm down anytime soon; the African Union peacekeepers still suffer constant attacks, and political progress has been slow:
The secular transitional government (headquartered in the northern city of Baidoa), which late last year aided an Ethiopian invasion that unseated the hardline Islamic Courts regime, failed to capitalize on the clans’ brief harmony. Bureaucratic sloth and parliamentary infighting had paralyzed the Baidoa government at perhaps its most critical hour. The disarray delayed the standing up of government forces that could fill the security vacuum. “The government was not reliable and had no public support on the ground. Security matters were a complete disaster,” says Dr. Abdirizak Osman Hassan, a veteran member of parliament. In the absence of a strong federal presence, Islamic Courts fighters organized an insurgency that has turned Mogadishu into the new Baghdad.Right; without a central government capable of acting or effecting political reconciliation, violence and chaos continue. What I'm really afraid of is that Somalia is Iraq's future, rather than Iraq's past. Anyway, read the whole thing.--Robert Farley
