In May of 2006 theWashington Post reported that the US was “secretly supporting secular warlords who have been waging fierce battles against Islamic groups for control of the capital, Mogadishu.” And Tony Snow basicallyconfirmed it saying…”In an environment of instability, as we’ve seen in the past, Al Qaeda may take root, and we want to make sure that Al Qaeda does not in fact establish a beachhead in Somalia.” At that time the Somalian government warned the Bush policy was“shortsighted and dangerous.” And it was.

YesterdayMcClatchy reported that Somalia has descended into Africa’s worst crisis…

AFGOYE, Somalia — A year after the U.S.-backed Ethiopian army toppled a hard-line Islamist regime in Somalia, the country has become Africa’s worst humanitarian catastrophe.

Some 200,000 refugees, mostly women and children, have fled from a pro-government offensive to makeshift camps along a 10-mile stretch of sun-baked asphalt that leads from the seaside capital of Mogadishu toward the inland town of Afgoye.

The crisis is brutal on young people.

The rest is heartbreaking.

Now theAP reports that at least 17 have been killed by shelling and in gunbattles in the capital as the once toppled Islamic group is making a significant comeback. The Somalian director of security states they have “no power to resist the Islamists.” And…

Ted Dagne, an Africa specialist at the Congressional Research
Service, the Congress’ research arm, said the Islamic leadership was
never truly gone and merely went underground.

“The Somali and Ethiopian governments may have underestimated the
level of organization and determination on the part of the Islamic
courts,” Dagne said in a telephone interview from Washington.

He added that many people look back on the group’s six months in
power and conclude the country then “was relatively peaceful and gave
hope to the people of Somalia that after over a decade of violence,
they can live in peace.”

After the council was ousted, remnants launched an Iraq-style
insurgency, causing more bloodshed and throwing this already
beleaguered nation into chaos.

So what does the Bush administration say now of the recent mess they had their hand in creating? Basically they (Somalia and other African nations) can clean it up. Again from the AP link…

In Washington, the State Department called on Somalia to work toward
an effective cease-fire to prevent deaths of more innocent civilians.

“We reiterate our earlier call on all Somali actors to isolate
extremist elements,” State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has urged more African nations to send peacekeepers to Somalia,

They play out their arrogant foreign policy as though playing a game of Risk with no regard for the fact that actual people will die.

Relatives claim the body of a
civilian, who was killed in a blast, at the Madina hospital in
Mogadishu December 13, 2007. REUTERS/Feisal Omar (SOMALIA)