Last night in Beirut: death threats, curfews, and the rest.

Thursday 25/01 - Friday 26/01.

When we were driving in the South, we’ve been hearing about mounting tensions all over the country... First, clashes between refugees and the Army in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain-El-Helwa, just outside Saida (at which point my driver, to my great disappointment, decided we weren’t going to the camp. Bugger). Then, it was clashes at the Lebanese Arab University between students and people of the Mostaqbal party (that’s the pro-gov Hariri people): 4 dead. And that is just outside the house of my driver, who started to panic because he was getting worried about his kids...
Didn’t help that both mobile network, Alfa and MTC Touch, were both down. And, according to Steve, so were the landlines - a way for the government to stop people from rallying, perhaps? That’d be a mighty bad idea... with all the people trying to check on their children... oh well.

Then we started hearing that people had been blocking the roads leading from the Beirut to the South. Then the driver started to get nervous - and it took me a little while to understand why.

Most villages have a clear sectarian majority - and therefore, you can pinpoint villages saying that ‘this is a Shiite/Sunni/Maronite’ village. And those barriers on the roads would therefore be set based on these reasons...

As we reached the town of Al-Naame, a Sunni/pro-Hariri/pro-government village, we were stuck for like 3 hours in a barrage set up by some angry youngsters. The driver tried, in vain, to go through side roads, and after a while, we were asked by the angry mob where we were going. My driver let me do the talking: after all, I’m a tourist and they would let me through, whereas if they heard him speak with his southern accent, they’d conclude he’s a Shiite - which is true - and send us back. So I took my best Egyptian accent and told them I was visiting, that I didn’t give a damn about their politics and that I wanted to go through.

At this point, their ‘leadership’ decided they would lift the barrage, and they let everyone through.

Later on, we reached another barrage, which lasted less - less than an hour. Now those guys were Shiites. They were searching all cars, the trunks, asking people what they were. Sending the Sunnis back. One of the people was yelling “if you’re Shiite we’ll let you through, if you’re Sunni we’ll kill you” then approached our car.

I was frozen. While I sensed that the guy was just an overexcited jerk, I was still pinned in my seat. So that’s what a sectarian war is like? People being classified based on their religion? This is fucking ridiculous.

Anyways, I spilled out my Egyptian-tourist-don’t-care-about-politics spiel, which didn’t work well; but my driver spoke to them, and as he was a Shiite as well, they let us through. They didn’t kill anyone, just sent some people back - but damn, it’s scary.

Then the driver dropped me by his home in southern Beirut, because he was worried that if he drove me to my place he wouldn’t be able to go home. Grrrrrr. So I found myself, after darkness, walking in an unknown area with angry youth running around me in motorcycles. Then I found myself right in front of the Lebanese Arab University, where some people died earlier! A crazy-looking square it was, with at least 200 angry young people, a bunch of army cars and television reporters running around!

Luckily I had Sara and her dad on the phone, giving me directions on how to get the hell out of there! Eventually I got out of this area, tried to take a cab they wouldn’t stop - that was around quarter to 8, so 45 minutes before the curfew... I even tried to have a police car drive me home but they wouldn’t stop either!!!

After a while I managed to take a cab - for about 7 times the normal fare -, to Renée’s place (which is my Lebanese home). Got home, then Renée took me along to a friend of hers, where we stayed until the next morning - the curfew was lifted at 6 am. So I got home, finished packing, and was on my way to Boston. To a -16 degrees climate.

I think the angry mob was better ;)

NB: the 3 photos in this entry are not mine but are from Al-Jazeera, of the day clashes at the Arab Uni. I didnt have the guts to get my camera out with all those angry kids with sticks running around..

Southern Lebanon: Complex destruction, complex borders

This is the route I took on my Southern tip. Saida (Sidon) and Beirut are further north, by the coast.


Went to Southern Lebanon today. All the way down to Bent Jbeil, all the way to the Lebanese Israeli border (interesting sight!). Partly for pure tourism (Tyre, Saida, and their ruins... beautiful!) and partly to see with my own eyes the amount of destruction after the July war. I’ve been so far confined mostly in Beirut, since this is where all my interviews were held anyways: all organisations have their HQ in the capital.

On the way, we stopped in Qana - along with Srebrenica, home to perhaps the biggest shame on the face of the United Nations Peace Keeping dept. The massacre of Qana occurred in a UNIFIL (United Nations Forces In Lebanon) camp, where people sought refuge after 7 days of severe Israeli shelling on Southern Lebanon.
On the eighth day, they bombed the UN refugee camp.
For more details on the Qana massacre, click here.


(On a less tragic note and FYI, Qana is also thought to be the Cana mentioned in the gospel of John, where Jesus turned water into wine.)








Overall, the amount of destruction goes from 'mild' to 'total', and Bent Jbeil probably got the share of the lion in this division. It’s insane. Walking in town you could see the house destroyed, and those that still stood bore huge halls in their walls - and I could see people’s living rooms, their couches, their beds, sometimes even the photos of their children on the wall. Chilling.

The only thing that got me out of my contemplation was my guide shouting at me: "Hey, be careful where you step - there are cluster bombs out there" at which point I TOTALLY froze. Felt awkward.
Felt like the war isn't over yet.

Then I asked my driver to take me to the Lebanese-Israeli border. Why is something I don't know how to answer right now. But it was surely worth it.
My driver, a Southerner, knew the area well. And as we drove past the Lebanese army checkpoints - who have only been there for a couple of months - I began to see the horizon, dominated by the beautiful snow-covered Mount Al-Sheikh, Lebanese territory, that overlooks Lebanon, Israel, and Syria. Here is the funny part: from where I stood and all the way the mountain, the valley in between is Israeli territory.

But as we drove closer to the border, we suddenly took a turn and I found myself driving past an Israeli road, so close I couldn't believe it. That's it? No huge barrier with a gazillion soldiers on each side, no (visible) pointed weapons, no flags defiantly staring at each other? Nope. Just a metallic barrier. A couple of Israeli army vehicles drove by, and I took a peak at some surveillance post on the other side of the border.
As I was driving past, chewing on my chicken sandwich, I was wondering what the heck was the point of it all. Of the border, of the destruction. It took a couple of UNIFIL cars driving by, and Israeli army vehicles destroyed (on the Lebanese side of the border, a souvenir from last war) to remind me. Because one country needs to be protected from its expansionary neighbour. Because people need to be able to go on with their daily lives without fearing tanks shelling their children’s school.




We started hearing that violent clashes were occurring in Beirut, and that all roads were being closed down by demonstrators. So we decided to zap Saida (Sidon) which I was planning on visiting, and we decided to head directly to Beirut. But this ride, my friends, is another story.

Lebanon Photos: Opposition, Destruction, Tent City..

Probably the most explanatory statement ever tagged on a wall.

In the office of the prime minister: "please use inside the bowl" . Hmm, I wonder how they choose their people...

The demonstrators normally turned their sit-in into a party -
with music, singing, and fireworks!

Demonstrators burning a car

Sarcasm. Pretty good, though I'm afraid it cannot be translated!

Southern Beirut. Destruction from last summer's war.

The sit-in in Riad El Solh Square -- just in front of the UN building, and very close to the prime minister's office

Campaign of the opposition: "we want to live in dignity"

Some more destruction. I was going to this building to meet some people - and i didn't find the building itself!

Beirut under Siege: my take on the Lebanese politics

Good thing I made it back to Beirut last night: everything is totally blocked today (that’s Tuesday, 23 Jan). Including the road to the airport. I should’ve been on a plane to Boston today. Ha!

Here’s my take on the political situation. I know I spent 10 days here and failed miserably to blog about it, but I did have the pleasure to enjoy observing the dynamics of Lebanese politics. Speaking to demonstrators. Praying with the guys camping in tent city. Chatting with taxi drivers, with the rich kids hanging out in Gemmayze, with the soldiers of the Lebanese army, with the Hezbollah officials in the Da7ya El Janoubeya. So I got to make my own little idea of the situation around here: here it goes.

I’m normally rather sympathetic to the opposition’s demands. (Opposition is Hezbollah, Amal, Aoun (the National Free whatever party) and some other minor parties). Plus, I have great respect to Hezbollah as a resistance movement, and I think they did a great work freeing the South from the occupation. And, I think that people camping downtown is a fascinating sight and I think they believe in what they do. I do think the way the government is, the way it works, is not representative of the Lebanese people.

All this being said, I’m losing faith in the opposition’s leadership. I think Hezbollah is merely trying to regain the aura it has lost during the July war by imposing itself as a political party. Which is fine by me - but the way they’re doing it is not the right way.

Hezbollah has taken a bet, by withdrawing its ministers in an attempt to topple the government. Later it has asked - some say paid - its supporters to camp in the capital’s main two squares, Riad El Solh and the Martyrs square, and they’ve been living in tents there since December First. This has been a bit of a disaster - not only did they not topple the gov, but the latter has been going on with its plans as planned, working on reform schemes, preparing for the Paris III donors conference...

So yesterday, the opposition decided to up the movement and go on a full strike-cum-riot in Beirut. The streets were blocked. Shops were closed - reports came about shopkeeper being threatened and beaten up if they tried to open their shops. Demonstrators, mainly groups of wanking teenagers, have been burning tires and trash, blocking the streets with dirt, threatening cars and hitting some people.

It’s ridiculous. I think that with this little adventure, not only did they fail topple the government, they failed miserably at attracting more support; but they are also losing the support of their supporters. People hate it when they are unable to do what they need to do. Add to that that many of the opposition supporters belong t the lower income groups; for those, even a day of strike can be painful.

Plus, there have been people wounded. And three dead. Well done, guys - you managed not only to block the country again - last time was 6 months ago, during the war - but you also succeeded at reminding the Lebanese of the Civil War days, when the city was split, when gunshots were no longer unusual, when people died everyday for no other reason than their religion or sect. Insanity seemed to be back in Beirut. Not only this will turn people against Hezbo quite seriously - but it will also destroy its efforts to frame the current conflict as a political rather than a sectarian one.

It’s not just a shot in the foot: it’s more of a madman actually sawing off his damn foot.

Damn idiots. You gambled, and you lost.

(update: just now, I heard on Al-Arabeya that the opposition is suspending its strike. Hurray!!)

Damascus, fair Damascus

Made it to Syria at 2am, after a crazy taxi ride from Amman to Damascus under insane rain. I was freaking out, but we somehow made it in one piece.

Here is the thing: in Damascus, everyone tries to take advantage of you. I felt it was kinda appalling. I mean, I’m not a 50 years old white man riding a taxi to the Hilton (not that this guy deserves to be taken advantage of by the cabbie, but he is more likely to, no?). Same will the guy at the hostel. Same will the shopkeepers. Everyone. Wasn’t like that in Jordan. And in Egypt, we do it sometimes but at least we’ve got humour doing it ;)

Anyways. Damascus is beautiful! The old city is gorgeous. The alleys, the houses... it’s like a 200 years jump back in time. And the market is quite an experience! Souk-Al-Hamedeya is this huge covered market with almost everything you can imagine.

The food in Damascus is also quite fabulous. Besides Bekdash’s ice-cream, the pastries are great. The cooking, the meat, the skewers, the kebab, hmmmm!!

I prayed in the Omayyad Mosque. It’s very, very beautiful! And there is an interesting fact about it: there is no high barrier between men and women, just a rather porous line. I think that’s cool..

And, the highlight of the trip, was to go to a Hammam! Wow, that was... painful!

(that's me after all the scrubbing and the steam... too tired to smile... :)

And I also got to experience some sort of Shiite festival at the shrine of Roq(aya, the daughter of Ali and Fatima (the Prophet’s granddaughter). Interesting experience... I’ve been thinking, and discussing, lately about the whole Sunni/Shiite thing. I guess there is something quite appealing about have a ‘holy family’ like the Shiites do; and you care about them know their stories, etc... It kinda makes for a number of sacred people to adore, to care for. But here is the thing: it’s wrong. Not one of them is perfect. Even the Prophet was very keen on underlining that he is a man, not a half-god of some sort...

Oh well.

Anyways, I got tired of Damascus a little quickly, and I left after a day and a half.

On the way back to Beirut, well, visa issues on the border. One hour of waiting on the Syrian side of the border - they didn’t want to let me out! - then 4 hours on the Lebanese side - they didn’t want to let me in!! Then I eventually got issued some sort of weird and exceptional 5 days visa! It took having a US visa on my passport to convince them to let me in... Insanity. It’s almost a shame to be an Arab, around here... Just like in Jordan: we had an Aussie and two Israelis in the car, but the driver said that it could be a problem for me to get through the government checkpoints to the Dead Sea... What the fuck?? It’s irritating! I mean, if they want to create some sort of Arab Unity they might want to start by making people feel at home in whatever the ‘Arab Homeland’ should be... When should we start expecting an Arab Schengen agreement?

Crossing the highway in my underwear, and other ‘tonterías’

So I didn’t find a swimsuit where I was staying in Amman. Which was okay, because after Andrew picked up a little... argument with our driver, he convinced him to drive us to the free area by the Dead Sea, which was beautiful!!!

Hmm. Rewind a little bit. Andrew, Roi and Shir, with whom I was staying at the hostel. On Saturday - my second day in Jordan - we decided to go on one of those organised trips that the hostel runs. Two Korean girls were also there but we barely exchanged a word with them... Oh well.

So we went, among other places, to the Dead Sea! And we avoided the tourist beach and went to a place where regular people go, which was suggested by the Lonely Planet - it’s called Herodus Springs, and there are hot springs right across from the sea.

The Sea was really funny! And I was floating... for real!! That was so funny!! And I did the most stupid mistakes of all - I tried to dive. First, you can’t dive: too much pressure upwards. Plus, water enters your nose, your eyes, and it fucking hurts! And it tastes REALLY bad!

Then I hit the hot springs, which were really cool.

Oh, to explain the title of the paragraph: I swam in my trunks. Yep. Sorry, that’s my hidden trashy side... :) And to get to the springs, I had to cross the highway, which I did, barefoot, and almost naked. And the weirdest thing is that it didn’t feel weird at all!!!!

Other highlight of the day was Mount Nebo - where, according to the Bible, God showed Moses the Promised Land and told him the equivalent of ‘See that land over there? Well, I should give it to you but you’re never going to get there, na!’. And from there, you can see the Land - in a clear day you can see Jericho (Ari7a), Jerusalem... it’s a fascinating sight!

Something else happened, though. I was sitting there with Shir - who is Israeli, for that matter - and we were contemplating the horizon. And we didn’t even talk - words weren’t necessary. It was... good.

Really, Roi and Shir are the kind of people whom it’s good to meet in dark times. When I start losing hope in our little piece of land we call the Middle East. Guys - love you. I’ve known you for what, 24 hours? But I’m glad to call you my friends.

Amman, Jordan

Jordan!
Took a road trip from Beirut to Amman. (too much to write about Beirut, so i'll need to take more time to do it!!!)

I didnt sleep the night before, as i was cleaning up Renee's flat that i had been squatting for the previous 10 days... (Renee, you're my hero. Dinner sometime?)
Took some sort of a taxi, quite a nice road. about 5 or 6 hours. The mountains in Lebanon are simply breathtaking... and you can see snow on the hills... Gorgeous!

Then crossing through Syria, which doesnt require a visa for Egyptians! Thanks to our nice little 3-year union (1958-1961), we can go in with our ID. Thanks Abdel Nasser!!!

The border crossing into Jordan was long because i had to be interviewed by the secret services, then they let me in. There was a guy in the car whose entry they refused.. he had an expired passport! That probably didnt feel too good...
Yesterday just went for a walk in the city - everything was closed at 11pm! Sucks!! And missed drinks with Roba, sorry dear.

Btw, Roba was decribing Amman as a city of stairs: she couldn't be more right! Amman was originally built on 7 hills but now expanded to like 19... (says the Lonely Planet!!)
Today though was great - saw Reem who picked me up for a quick tour of the hip areas of Amman, and breakfast. Then some more visitng in town, hercules' temple ruins, the Citadel.. not too much to check out in town, though. Jordan overall is gorgeous, but the prettiest places are outside. Still, Amman has a feel of its own, and the hills are really nice and make up for the most beautiful sights that you can take, with all the house on the hills...

Will head now for food with some other backpackers -- and we'll see tomorrow about the dead sea.
Need to buy a swimming suit. otherwise, i'll go naked. Not a good idea, though, because on the dead sea... things float!!

(update: photos are here!)

How liberal are you?

Take the test. o% is ultraliberal, 100% is ultraconservative. GB Senior scores 40, Bill Clinton scores 15, to give you references.
http://franz.org/quiz.htm

I scored 11!! Hmmm. Always thought of myself as a neocon. Oh well.
You?

How readable are you?

(Cheers to Roba!)

Apparently there is a readability test that can be done to roughly determine how easy to read is a document (or a blog). The lower score is easier (the number are supposed to represent the number of years of education necessary to read the thing) And the benchmarks are as such:

Fog Index Examples
6 TV guides, Mark Twain
8 Reader’s Digest
8 - 10 Most popular novels
10 Time, Newsweek
11 Wall Street Journal
14 The Times, The Guardian
15 - 20 Academic papers
Over 20 Only government sites can get away with this, because you can’t ignore them.
Over 30 The government is covering something up

And this humble blog apparently scored 10.07. So slightly more complex than Time. Hmmm.
Noooooooo! I want my blog to complexly unreadable! I am very selective as to my readership!

Perhaps I shall set on somewhat increase the intrinsec complexity of the selected vocabulary I shall be using to depict to you my impressions on the ambient environment we evolve in.

(Oh crap. No can do. Ma' vocab' suks, 'n' so doz my dixion.)

Try it! Let me know what you get!! Yuka, i give you a 14.9 for smartness!! :)

John Stewart sums up Bush's speeches

This is just BRILLIANT. A must see!!

Jon Stewart is one of the most interesting persons on television in the world. Him and Hayfaa Wahbe.
Even more: I'd rather 5 minutes of Stewart than an hour of Wahbe. And that's big.

Enjoy!

Former Army official admits that the israeli army conducts kidnappings

Not that it really was new, but it's nice to have it being admitted and published.

The YNet article, by former IDF member Arik Diamant (the chap is currently a reservist, and head of the 'Courage to Refuse' organisation) tells how the IDF kidnaps people because they suspect that 'they know 'someone' who has done 'something' '.
He also draws a nice little comparison between the israeli soldier kidnapped in Lebanon, and the hundreds, thousands of Palestinians illegally kept in Israeli jails - many of whom were abducted in the same way as the israeli soldier. Only those people don't have names, don't have European diplomats interfering for them, and surely have no prospects of going home.
Surely worth a read.

Lebanon: still a mine field. With Uranium traces, this time.

The Lebanese Daily Star reported that new analysis has shown traces of radioactive depleted uranium that were used by Israel during its July offensive.

This report confirms a report by Chris Busby, the British secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, who said that "there is no way the signs of uranium found in Khiam were the result of natural or industrial materials. Their only source is nuclear reactors."

Jerks.

One more year up the Poverty-Politics Curve!

So for my New Year resolution, I decided to use my newfound (poor) skills in Excel.
This, in my opinion, is the relationship between poverty and political involvement (and my contribution to science ;-P): let's call it the Poverty-Politics Curve (PPC for insiders).

Richer societies are involved in politics; the people ensures that its rights are respected, and it sanctions any government that doesn’t in the next elections, in a well-oiled process of political participation and, more importantly, political change.
They, in a sense, ‘can afford it’. Those are in the second quadrant (on the left of the graph).
In reasonably poor societies, where the Average Joe (or the Average Ahmed, if you wish) strives to get by, where his income barely gets him to the 25th of each month and he has to scrape through the rest of it, well, our Average Ahmed is too busy to bother about politics, so long as things are stable. Egypt was there for quite a while: after the IMF plans in the early nineties (the ERSAPs: Economic Reform and Structural Adjustment Programmes I and II), it had a fixed exchange rate (pegged to the US dollar, although its main trade partner is the EU) and things seemed rather okay. You know, Adel Imam was still doing cheap comedy, people got through.
Those are located around the centre of the graph (and the lower part of the U-shaped curve).

Then, you have the third phase, which is where people are getting so poor, that the pinch of hunger makes them wonder what the hell is going wrong with the country. And this is where, unless you have a Ghandi in town, things go ugly. This is what ‘bread riots’ are all about. This is when Revolutions occur, and this when ‘elite’ blood is shed, if you will. Think France 1789. Why go this far? Think Egypt 1952, when the Army (we later were taught ‘the People’) deposed the King.

Think the past 6 years. 2001, Egypt ends the peg with the dollar, which goes from 1$ = 3.42 LE (LE is Livre Egyptienne: Egyptian Pound. Yes, we loved our occupiers so much that we still name our currency after theirs) to 1$ = 7 LE in a matter of months. That’s a 100% depreciation. (it later appreciated a bit, to roughly a 1 to 5 exchange rate). And no real increase of competitiveness ensued, even; but it was the beginning of a beautiful imported inflation. Look at consumer goods. Meat was 60 LE a kg last week; it was 12 LE five years ago.

So we’re heading, beautifully, to havoc.

Happy new year.

Saddam Hussein won't be missed. BUT...

Saddam Hussein is dead. Baby-Bush kept his word: before the end of 2006.
The fact that it was on the dawn of the Muslim feast - here you go, fuckers - didn’t bother them the least.
Al-Ahram had a nice commentary on that in its issue on Sunday (31/12).

At the time where Muslims were preparing to make their offerings for Eid-Al-Adha, the US decided to offer Saddam Hussein’s head to make up for their abysmal failure in Iraq.

Many noticed that executing Saddam for the Dojeil case, where 148 Shiites died, was a clear American signal that they were deciding of the ranking of ethnic/religious groups in Iraq: remember that the Anfal case, were 180 THOUSAND Kurds died, was still pending.
Anfal was waiting. So was the first Gulf war (Iraq-Iran, 1980-1988). So was Koweit’s Invasion and Gulf war II (1990/1991). And many, many more.
But in everything, and really everything, the US had something to do with it. Sponsoring then President Hussein, nodding in agreement to Koweit’s invasion, and the ensuing embargo on Iraq that lasted until the US occupation (an embargo that cost the lives of a million children. When informe of this fact, then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said it was ‘worth it’.)

Killing Hussein before the court got to the ‘good stuff’, the stuff where SH’s testimony would have actually been interesting, was a good way for the United States to shut him up before he revealed any of the dirty deals that surrounded his reign for a quarter century. A bit of a cheap way out, really. Seriously, they could have done better. But this was SO blunt and ugly that I shiver.

Then come to the execution itself. The dude had asked that he be shot - motion refused.
The executioners, wearing their fancy black masks, were chosen to be Shiite. So guess what: pro-Hussein people will see that Shias killed their president. The Americans are doing a great job at igniting the hatred. Well done. Hijos de puta.

But apparently, with a new video of the execution being made available - with the sound and all, unlike the one they played on television (CAN YOU BELIEVE, BTW, THEY ACTUALLY EXECUTED HIM ON TELLY???) where Shia chants are being heard, someone yells to Hussein 'you're going to hell!!!' I can't think of a cheaper, uglier way of doing things.
Hussein started to mutter a prayer - but the trapdoor opens too quickly. They weren't even willing to let him ask for forgiveness.

The whole thing makes me sick. Even a monster deserves to die in a more dignified way. And if not for him or his family, then at least, think of all the bad feelings that this will generate - and the ensuing violence.

So long, SH. You’ve been a son of a bitch - but, really, it was better with you than it is now. The fact that even I have reached such a conclusion means that the US military adventure in Iraq has been such, such a failure.

One more war in Somalia

So the US won a war in Somalia, for once. Congrats. Last time they were there they had soldiers ‘etsa7alo’ - I’m afraid I don’t know the English name for that - though I think the English may have invented it? - but it is simply tying someone’s legs to a horse and then making the horse run so the person is dragged on his face all across town. Modern variants have replaced the horse with a truck - so you had a truck dragging two American soldiers across Mogadishu. Word has it that the trail of blood was remarkably short.

What? You’re saying the US did not fight? There were no Marines there? Ah. My bad. I meant to say:
The US won a proxy war in Somalia. Sending the Ethiopian troops, whose ego was crushed when Eritrea basically spat on their faces and declared independence a little more than a decade ago, thereby snatching all the coastline from Ethiopia and leaving their former occupiers as a locked in country.
So Ethiopians are frustrated. It doesn’t help that they periodically declare war on Egypt over sharing the resources of the Nile; when Egypt finally agreed to renegotiate, the outcome was a grandiose ‘Nile Basin Initiative’ with multi-billion dollars projects that currently sit in the drawer of the Secretariat of the NBI in Kenya, waiting for, well, the Nile to turn into Petroleum or something. So now they’re even more frustrated.
Plus, they could use a way out to the sea. Whether they end up occupying (oops. We don’t say occupation anymore. It’s called ‘military presence’.) or having a grateful faction at the head of the government, they badly needed to access a port, since Eritrea still holds a grudge against them. Somalia looked pretty cool, no? With a long coastline on both the Red Sea and the Ocean, a fallen stateless state is an easy target.

So they got some US weapons and went into Somalia to fight one of the warring factions. Technically, they VOLUNTEERED to support the Interim government in place. This looks pretty.
But the Somalian reality is that, basically since 1992 (when US soldiers were dragged across the street Mogadishu on their noses) there has been no real authority in Somalia. Besides Somaliland, a quasi-autonomous region that has decided it was better on its own, Mogadishu has been a place where the old adage of ‘the King is the one who wakes up first each morning’ applies pretty well.
The interim government was a relatively interesting attempt to stabilise the country. Interesting, and quite failed.
Then came the Islamic Courts. I have no idea what they are (were?) all about, but they were merely yet another warring faction who wanted a piece of the country.
Those folks, however, seemed to have some support; and after a few months they had Mogadishu and the South under control. Things were looking somewhat promising.

But, it says ‘Islamic’, right? The US, in its infinite wisdom, wasn’t willing to take it. They didn’t really read the Courts’ programme - perhaps because they didn’t really have one :) - but they decided that those bloody ‘Islamists’ were going down.

So there you have it. A short, and soon-to-be-forgotten chapter in the history of the US myopic foreign policy. It’s not a clash of civilisations, except in GWB’s tiny tiny head. It’s pure geopolitics. And Ethiopia may be a bitch of a country - they’re not dumb.

I’m just so fucking mad the US was too short-sighted to give Somalis a chance to stability. You know, a real country kind of thing. They almost forgot what it feels like.

Oh, and, 5000 dead Somalis in two days. Well done, you Ethiopian motherfuckers.