Would you put Iraq out of your mind for just a moment and recall that the war on terror is taking place in many countries, not just one (Iraq) or two (Afghanistan)? In truth, the anti-terror side of the struggle won a significant and under-reported victory a few weeks ago when the Somali Transitional government and its Ethiopian allies—with covert American support—defeated the Islamic Court, a Taliban-like group attached to al Qaeda. It was a true victory for a common front of moderate Moslems and others in Africa and the West.
But the United States of America still has not officially recognized the transitional government as the legitimate government of the country —even though we helped to install it. The United Nations recognizes it, as do the European Union, the African Union and even the Arab League. But not the U.S. of A. What’s our problem?
While the outcome of the fighting was still in doubt, the reason for withholding recognition supposedly was that the American government was not sure of the ability of the transitional government to persevere and prevail. We didn’t want to have egg on our face in case they were defeated. Of course, if we did get some Somali egg on our face, who would have noticed, what with all the other egg (including some old eggs from Somalia a few years ago) that has collected on Uncle Sam’s capacious mug? Nonetheless, fear of embarrassment was a reason, if not a particularly good one for failure to commit publicly. In time, the U.S. did decide to help the transitional government, but not officially. News stories, too, downplayed our role.
Now there really is no excuse for a policy of studied neglect. Yet the United States is still failing to bring its full diplomatic weight to bear on the issue. Sadly, it also is failing to follow up adequately on the initial victory it enabled by helping the still-nominal goverenment. Instead, our government seems to be dithering, effectively throwing the victory away. The mainstream media are just as neglectful, so the USG apparently feels little pressure from that source. The Islamist radicals meanwhile are mounting an insurgency, as was predictable. (See the excellent and unusual Reuters story here, that puts a human face on it.) But we are unmoved.
The Somalis reportedly have not asked for troops, please note, just financial help to get their newly national regime up and running. In response, the U.S. is tying in red tape even the mere $40 million it has pledged so far for reconstruction. Much more important than winning today, it seems, is making sure that the Congress and the GAO don’t find waste in appropriations procedures sometime in the future. You can appreciate their caution when you realize that media and Congressional watchdogs that are indifferent to Somalia’s fate now will be very interested indeed if eventually they can find some money for uniforms that got diverted to sewer construction or a provincial governor who got bribed with funds meant for pensions. With knowledge of this tendency, bureaucrats and careerist politicians often are more eager to do nothing wrong that is highlighted in an eventual report, than to do something helpful in a crisis.
Never mind. There are plenty of members of Congress who care about Africa, even if they don’t much care about winning the war on terror. Why can’t they be involved? Why can’t the US Government (dare I mention that we have a Central Intelligence Agency?) free up some money to feed people, pay the transitional government troops directly before they give up and go home (or change sides) and pick up garbage and repair roads? Could someone in the National Security Council of the White House please place a phone call to Langley?
Maybe the NSC could even convene a meeting and ask themselves whether it really would be more cost-effective to have the Islamic Courts—with radical Saudi money—come back and bring al Qaeda with them. When that happens we might as well forget about Iraq anyhow, because the terrorists will have found a new state in which to base operations. They were close to establishing it before. We helped take it away from them. Good for us. But now we seem so bureaucratically and politically hamstrung that we are going to let them back in. Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!
Here is my question: Who is in Charge of U.S. Policy in Somalia and Why are They Dawdling?
Ask that person to tell me in reply that I am misinformed (and so are the Somalis) and that adequate help is on the way, and so is recognition. And tell me that we are not sending our aid through the UN, please, but directly to the people who need it.