Say What?
I don't know if you listen to NPR but I can't start the day without it. Yup, I am a public radio junky.
Last week Ted Koppel had an interesting commentary on Somalia. Check our www.npr.org, it commentary aired on the 7th, it should be archived on the site by now.
Anyway, our boy Ted reminded us what a mess Somalia is and has been for quite some time how it is a "case study of unintended consequences". Something the first President Bush learned that Junior is only now figuring out. Imagine that. But I digress...
Remember the blackhawk that was shot down? Remember Mogadishu? Remember how we were going to control those nasty warlords? Well in 1994 we finally figured out that wasn't going to work and got out.
Guess what? according to Ted "it appears that the United States has been supporting the militias it once tried to eradicate, to the tune of more than $100,000 a month." Yup, those very same warlords who attacked our troops back in 1994, the ones that the Islamist militias just defeated. We were supporting them.
Let me get this straight... we were supporting the guys who shot down our helicopter and dragged the body of a soldier through the streets of Mogadishu... why? Because the Islamists didn't like them? Are we going to take a stand against any Islamist force out there no matter who we have to take that stand with? Scary. Makes you think.
Ted finishes up by saying: "The State Department ... rejected suggestions that US policy in Somalia has been dealt a setback. The President let us know... that he and his advisers are going to strategize on Somalia. That's all very reassuring; although it's hard to see how things could be any worse if they just left it alone."
Go Ted.
Last week Ted Koppel had an interesting commentary on Somalia. Check our www.npr.org, it commentary aired on the 7th, it should be archived on the site by now.
Anyway, our boy Ted reminded us what a mess Somalia is and has been for quite some time how it is a "case study of unintended consequences". Something the first President Bush learned that Junior is only now figuring out. Imagine that. But I digress...
Remember the blackhawk that was shot down? Remember Mogadishu? Remember how we were going to control those nasty warlords? Well in 1994 we finally figured out that wasn't going to work and got out.
Guess what? according to Ted "it appears that the United States has been supporting the militias it once tried to eradicate, to the tune of more than $100,000 a month." Yup, those very same warlords who attacked our troops back in 1994, the ones that the Islamist militias just defeated. We were supporting them.
Let me get this straight... we were supporting the guys who shot down our helicopter and dragged the body of a soldier through the streets of Mogadishu... why? Because the Islamists didn't like them? Are we going to take a stand against any Islamist force out there no matter who we have to take that stand with? Scary. Makes you think.
Ted finishes up by saying: "The State Department ... rejected suggestions that US policy in Somalia has been dealt a setback. The President let us know... that he and his advisers are going to strategize on Somalia. That's all very reassuring; although it's hard to see how things could be any worse if they just left it alone."
Go Ted.
Comments