Editorial
U.S. bombing away Somalia's sovereignty
By
Mar 9, 2008 - 8:33:05 PM

SUNDAY EDITORIAL | Is something gained or much more lost when American missiles hit Somali homes and TFG officials remain silent?

Again, the U.S. military missed its target in Somalia. On March 3, U.S. missiles pounded a home in the small border town of Dobley, reportedly killing civilians inside. The target – Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan – is wanted by the U.S. government in connection with the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. It was the second time U.S. missiles targeted Nabhan…and missed.

The whole world now knows that the American missiles missed their target, but the idea of Somalia being the "third front" in George Bush's global war on terror has been reinforced by the latest bombing. The U.S. government has long believed that Somalia is home to wanted terrorists, some of whom are being sheltered by the country's Islamist guerrillas. The Dobley bombing effectively portrayed Somalia to the international community as a lawless place where terrorists roam freely, despite U.S. military and financial backing for Ethiopia' s 2006 intervention in south Somalia.

Critics of Somalia's Ethiopian-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG) argue that the government lacks legitimacy and is not a sovereign entity, since it is dependent on foreign support. The Dobley bombing delivered this point more effectively. In an interview with the BBC Somali Service, Dobley Mayor Ali "Dheere" Hussein said that no TFG official contacted him prior to or after the March 3 bombing. What remains unclear is whether or not U.S. warships operating off the Somali coast asked for permission to bombard Dobley, since the town presumably falls within the jurisdiction of TFG rule.

What remains even more ambiguous is the effectiveness of such targeted bombings. Is something gained or much more lost when American missiles hit Somali homes and TFG officials remain silent? The argument could easily be made that such preemptive acts weaken, not strengthen, the already fragile TFG position in Somalia. The U.S. government is on one hand offering assistance to the TFG to secure the country, but is exposing the TFG as the ineffective, weak and disorganized entity it really is. Anti-government groups leading the muqawama insurgency find new recruits on a daily basis, because they can point to inexcusable acts like the bombing of civilian homes in Dobley to rightly or wrongly portray the TFG as a government created by foreign powers to repress Somali liberation.

It seems as if "missile diplomacy" is being substituted in the place of "dialogue diplomacy," with both sides throwing bombs and civilians dying in the middle. The U.S. government policy seems to be one of "containment" of the threat  – real or perceived  – instead of engaging the threat in a more constructive and effective way.

We cannot simply wish away our problems.

Garowe Online Editorial, editorial@garoweonline.com