Backing Up Somalia

In an earlier post I noted- with great joy- the great success that the combined Ethiopian and Somali military forces(Along with some help from US forces stationed in Djibouti) achieved in the routing the Islamic Courts Union from their perch this last month. I also noted that in order for this victory to be lasting and remain a no-go for al Qaeda, the United States has got to muster up all the resources it has at its disposal to ensure that the fledgling Somali government continues to stay intact and prevents the area from reverting back to chaos. Now I know that I have preached at the top of my lungs that the US should be wary of sending tons of cash outright to nations because it removes any incentive to the receiving nation but with Somalia I feel that we've got to throw out our apprehensions about blanket aid. The main reason for my avoiding my usual caution is that the current government is flat broke and is being held together by mere strings that are slowly fraying with Ethiopia's current troop draw down. One individual that seems to have a brain around the situation and understands the necessity of providing help to our friends who are willing to step up to the plate and fight Islamic extremists is Daveed Gartenstein-Ross who has penned a good article over at the Weekly Standard that calls on the US to break through all the roadblocks and turf wars between the Pentagon and State and help or friends in need before we suffer a strategic blunder in the Horn of Africa and chalk up a victory for al Qaeda much like we did when we booked out of Somalia like we did in the early 1990's. We've just got to return to JFK's(And many other foreign policy hawks) Cold War mentality in which we'll "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty," if we're going to push the Islamic extremists onto the ash heap of history.

*If we do take this route with regards to Africa then we've got to work on putting the region under a military umbrella with teeth much like David Silverstein noted in this piece over at National Review Online.