Mogadishu becoming "ghost city" - Another Bush Mission Accomplished

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/international/ticker/detail/Mogadishu_becoming_ghost_city.html?siteSect=143&sid=7753169&cKey=1177521984000

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - The Somali capital Mogadishu is becoming a "ghost city" as residents flee a government offensive to crush Islamist insurgents and clan militia, the United Nations refugee agency said on Wednesday.

Shelling and machine-gun fire shook the coastal city for an eighth day, although residents said Wednesday's fighting was lighter than in previous days.

Allied Somali-Ethiopian forces are battling Islamist rebels frustrating the interim government's bid to restore central rule in the Horn of Africa nation for the first time in 16 years.

The United Nations says nearly 340,000 people have fled the coastal city in recent weeks, many sleeping in the open or under trees. It has warned of a looming health disaster.

[Alacrat]

1. What a sad place

Somalia has been in a war like state for a long time. I really feel for the people trapped in the middle of it.
I also find it strange that Ethiopia is carrying out an offensive in Mogadishu. Not so long ago they were experiencing one of the worst famines in history. Now they are able to carry out an armed offensive beyond their boarders. I hope it isn't at the expense of feeding their citizens.
I also wonder who is funding this offensive, I can't imagine they could do it on their own.
Could it be the U.S.? I would be surprised if it wasn't.

[NNN0LHI]

2. Somalia's new Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Aided is a former U.S. Marine

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-01-10-somalia-airstrikes_x.htm

<snip>Somalia's Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Aided said Wednesday that U.S. special forces were needed on the ground to help Somali and Ethiopian troops capture Muslim extremists. "They have the know-how and the right equipment to capture these people," said Aided, a former U.S. Marine.

A senior Somali government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, said a small U.S. operations team already was on the ground, providing military advice to Ethiopian and government forces.

In Washington, two senior Pentagon officials said Wednesday they had heard of no plans to put any sizable contingent of American ground troops in Somalia. Small teams of liaison officers — such as special forces advisers or trainers — were another matter, they said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the subject.

U.S. troops based in Djibouti have been training Ethiopian soldiers for years, mostly in small-unit tactics and border security. Ethiopia has the largest military and is America's closest ally in the region.

[Leopolds Ghost]

3. The Ethiopian-backed government is a puppet regime, composed of US agents.

Ethiopia is a christian nation, Somalia is Muslim. There are no group of Somalis that has any historic ties to Ethiopia -- they hate each other.

The "interim government" is a US-created fiction that existed in Baidoa for the past decade, funded solely by western intelligence agencies with control solely of the UN-guarded area in Baidoa.

[Leopolds Ghost]

4. No, the US is LEADING the offensive. We have troops, naval vessels bombarding the coast

The Ethiopian backed "interim government" is "funding the offensive" in
the same sense as the ARVN was "funding the offensive in South Vietnam".

I can't believe after all this time people still believe that these armed
groups are independent of US control.

We CREATED this fictional government and nurtured it in the isolated city of Baidoa for over a decade, the guy who runs it is a US Special Forces Marine and son of Mohammed Farah Aideed, you know, the guy we were trying to kill.