Ethiopia Has Had Enough -- But Is That Enough?

Fed up with the antics of Somalia's Islamist regional troublemakers, Ethiopia and Ethiopian-backed Somali forces (i.e., the legitimate government of Somalia, such as it is) are now within 15 miles of Mogadishu, and the Islamists are on the run. Islamist-occupied Mogadishu is sick of them too, as the NYT reports:

The goodwill they earned is being sapped away by their decision to attack the transitional government and declare a holy war against Christian-led Ethiopia. That provoked a crushing counterattack by the Ethiopians, who have the strongest military in East Africa and have sided with the transitional government because Ethiopia views the Islamists as a threat to its own security.

Residents in one of Mogadishu’s slums threw rocks at the Islamists’ pick-up trucks today.

Ahmed Nur Bilal, a retired Somali National Army general, said the war had been a horrible miscalculation. What made him especially mad, he said, was the Islamists’ reliance on adolescent boys to do most of the fighting. One of the first things the Islamists did after the fighting started was to close all schools in Mogadishu to send more young people to the front. Witnesses to some of the battles said the teenage troops were no match for the better-trained, better-equipped Ethiopian-backed forces who summarily mowed them down.

“They’ve misled our children to their deaths,” Mr. Bilal said.

Sad, but the costs imposed by tyranny are incredibly high. Hitler did the same thing when the Allies were advancing on Berlin. At least now one African nation is shaking off its torpor and standing up for itself and its neighbor. Maybe others will follow suit. Maybe there's a chance for at least a part of the continent to come out of its downslide. Maybe elephants will fly.

CNN update via Captain Ed:

Triumphant Somali government forces marched into Mogadishu on Thursday after Islamist rivals abandoned the war-scarred city they held for six months before an Ethiopian-backed advance.

The flight of the Islamists was a dramatic turnaround in the volatile Horn of Africa nation after they took Mogadishu in June and spread across the south imposing sharia rule.

Terrified of yet more violence in a city that has become a byword for chaos, some Mogadishu residents greeted the arriving government troops, while others hid.

"People are cheering as they wave flowers to the troops," said resident Abdikadar Abdulle, adding scores of government military vehicles had passed the Somalia National University west of the city center.

Unless Ethiopia is willing to ensure the stability of the Somali transitional government, however, things could begin to unravel, as Bill Roggio reports:

The Islamic Courts are signaling they will conduct an insurgency. The call for its fighters to blend into the population with their AK-47s is one sign. ICU leaders are giving all of the indications an insurgency is in the works. "Our snakes of defense were let loose, now they are ready to bite the enemy everywhere in Somalia," said Sheik Mohamoud Ibrahim Suley. "We will fight Ethiopia for a very long time, and we expect the war to reach everywhere,” according to an ICU statement. Even the resignation of the ICU leaders in Mogadishu indicated the ICU still wants to enforce sharia and calls for its fighters to "secure the stability and get ready in the police stations and other security stations."

The ICU may also be working to integrate its security forces and other elements of the organization into the new, TFG led government to destroy it from within.

And Al-Qaeda is calling for reinforcements (text via Evan Kohlman at Counterterrorism):

"...Major battles are now taking place between the Crusaders and the Soldiers of Allah in the Muslim land of Somalia, with the approval of the apostates in the caretaker Somali government and with the support of the alliance of crusader nations--at their head, the White House administration in Washington. The blood of Muslims is being spilled there, and their houses and villages are being destroyed. Thousands of their women, children, elderly are being expelled and left homeless, and this is only happening because they are Muslims... The Islamic State of Iraq calls upon all Muslims to stand with their brothers in Somalia, to support them with money, weapons, and men, and to pray for them that Allah grants them victory over their enemies..."

Comments

[RanXeroX]

I love it ! Go Ethiopia! Go Crusaders! Let the Muslims play the insurgency card.. The Ethiopians arent worried about appearances and world opinion.. They'll go Hutu on their jihadi asses..

[Zsa Zsa]

Radical Islamic trouble makers won't be happy until the entire globe are dead or rid of Christians or any other religious group. The UN is worthless and UNproductive right on cue as usual...

[Major John]

Busy days for JTF Horn of Africa...

I don't think the Ethiopians will stay long, so the TG had better get it right this time. WOuldn't do to have to fight this one all over again in a year or two.

[gail]

We already TRIED to fight it once under Clinton. Let's hope the Ethiopians have two more than Clinton had.

[Den of Imp Shell (Pixie)]

...but... I thought the two that Clinton had were what got him in to so much trouble with... oh. Nevermind.

*off to find Jake*

[Rob B.]

Actually it as the fact that interns don't swallow...

Wow, that's abrasive for even me....