Not Black and White As It Seems

Islamist forces desert Somali capital

Troops loyal to Somalia's weak transitional government were today poised to retake Mogadishu after Islamist movement fighters abandoned the city.

Clan militiamen poured into the streets to take control of the capital as government troops, backed by Ethiopian forces, prepared to follow from their bridgehead outside the city. "We will capture Mogadishu any time within the coming hours," the government spokesman, Abdirahman Dinari, said, adding that the country was under a state of emergency. "We are now at the entry points of the city."

Sheik Sharif Ahmed, the executive leader of the Somalia Council of Islamic Courts (SCIC), told al-Jazeera television that he ordered his forces out of Mogadishu, which they have occupied since June, to avoid bloodshed in the capital. Residents living south of Mogadishu said they saw convoys of Islamist fighters driving south towards the port city of Kismayo.

What is so depressing is that certain sections of the blogosphere and even the press seem to pain this as 'Christian vs. Muslim' and view it through the prism of 'The War on Terror' they seem to disregard the complexities of the complicate political and social issues in Somalia, how the SCIC transcends the clan boundaries and in this regard is socially progressive, they are popular with the Somali people because they provide law and order to a country which has been in the grip of the warlords since the 1990s, a stateless place where life means nothing, and finally a long comes a movement which offers a way out, its not black and white.

The Ethiopians are backed by the US, which is not surprising, its par the course for Uncle Sam.

I have one word for those cheering this invasion: What a bunch of idiots, their depth of stupidity astounds me.

More in depth analysis here - "Government forces" vs "Islamic militiamen".