The Other Afghanistan

“More than a dozen Ethiopian military trucks crossed the border into Somalia on Tuesday morning, officials said. The Ethiopian military set up a checkpoint at Kalabeyrka, according to the governor of the Hiran region, Sheik Abdirahman Ibrahim Macow. The Ethiopian troops, who had withdrawn from Somalia in January, returned days after a hard-line Islamist militia took over three towns, expanding its control over a large part of the country.” NY Times May 19

A very benign blurb and misleading. A little clarity, not much, can be gained by reading Al Jazeera from the same day.

“Ethiopian troops originally entered the country in 2006 to restore the UN-backed government to power in Mogadishu, which Islamist fighters had seized along with much of southern Somalia.”
“There have been sporadic reports of Ethiopian troops crossing the border since they pulled out of Somalia at the start of 2009 as part of a peace deal.”

Somalia was pulled into George Bush’s Crusade, oh um, War on Islam, oh I’m sorry, War on Terror for well, because the Islamic Courts wanted to establish Shar'ia law. I'm no fan of oppressive fundamentalist religion in any form, but if a country plagued with decades of violence finds peace through a sharia government, go for it.
Ethiopia has been acting not only as proxy for, but in concert with US military since early 2007. This is disturbing not only because it goes largely unnoticed, but that Pres "Change" is continuing W's folly. And because a government, of Ethiopian loyalists, was established with UN blessing doesn't Somalis can't see it for what it is, a puppet regime.

And similar to other countries affected by America’s War on Terror and weak puppet regimes (Iraq and Afghanistan), the true victims are the noncombatants maimed by errant bombs and bullets. The living also suffer; one quarter million Somalis have fled to neighboring Kenya, where they live in under-supplied over-crowded camps where they lack adequate food, water and shelter.

Washington needs to call back its goons, allow an indigenous and domestic stabilizing force to bring peace to this troubled nation.
And for the believers of this War on Terror, I’m not buying it here. No excuses of "Nukes" or imminent threat from impoverish Somalia.