OP-ED; "What's Going On in Somalia?" by Jonathan Stevenson, Wall Street Journal, 27 December 2006, p. A8.
Somalia, especially to the south, is virtually all Muslim. Ethiopia is predominantly Christian, and "vigorously opposed to Islamism."
Eritrea, no friend to former parent Ethiopia, supports separatist Muslim elements in southern Somalia. Ethiopia, no stranger to crushing terrorist camps in that part of Somalia, gears up for some more of the same and deploys up to 20k troops in Somalia to achieve those ends.
So just look at how our self-deterrence works:
The volatile situation in Somalia presents the West with a thorny and immediate problem. To quell geostrategic tensions created by Ethiopia and Eritrea's intervention, a U.N.-sanctioned force would have to be led by a major power [read, America]. yet even if such a power could afford the troops and materiel, the insertion of a significant number of Western-led troops would run the risk of attracting (as in Iraq) still more foreign jihadists to Somalia and inspiring terrorist attacks worldwide.
Still think Iraq is a one-off?
This fight heads south.
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