A few excerpts from an article about the advance of Ethiopian troops...
Six months ago, when the militia of the Islamic Courts Union seized the Somali capital of Mogadishu, it appeared that the al Qaeda-affiliated radicals were on the verge of a major triumph. The redoubtable StrategyPage declared them "unstoppable," and the usual hand wringers were urging us to negotiate with them.
All Islamic extremists are unlovely, but the Islamic Courts Union are a particularly nasty bunch. They modeled themselves on the (now deposed) Taliban in Afghanistan, and imposed their harsh version of Sharia (Islamic law) on the territory they controlled.
Movies and the playing of music were banned. So were smoking tobacco and chewing khat, a mild hallucinogen. Women were barred from beaches. People who didn't pray five times a day were threatened with beheading.
More than 20,000 Somalis fled in small boats across the Gulf of Aden to seek sanctuary in Yemen, said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Thousands more clogged refugee camps in neighboring countries.
In November, the Islamic Courts Union began an offensive against the provincial capital of Baidoa, where the UN-recognized government of Somalia had taken refuge, and announced plans to extend its "jihad" to Ethiopia, Somalia's neighbor to the west, and Kenya, its neighbor to the south.
Notice how the Chamberlinian liberals urged us to negotiate with the "unstoppable" force.
The Islamists swiftly abandoned Mogadishu, but declared they would make a stand at the southeastern port city of Kismayo, but as Ethiopian troops approached on New Year's Eve, the Islamists fled once again without giving battle.
The Islamists hoped to flee into Kenya, but Kenyan troops barred the way. The bulk of the Islamist forces who haven't gone home are thought to be hiding in the forests west of Kismayo, doing their best to avoid the attention of Ethiopian tanks.
Ethiopia won in short order because it unapologetically used force against vicious people who understand only force. They killed the people they needed to kill without worrying overmuch about collateral damage, and not at all about world opinion. And though the Ethiopian soldiers are Christians, they were hailed as liberators in this overwhelmingly Moslem country.
The "unstoppable" force was stopped by the Ethiopian army. The Ethiopian army accomplished what US forces would have been unable to do. Why? Not because they are superior fighters or better equipped. Ethiopia won where the US would have failed because Ethiopia doesn't have Democrats. They didn't care about world opinion. They didn't care about fighting a "gentle" war. They fought a war the way our ancenters fought wars and the way our troops would like to fight wars today. Instead, Democrats (and liberals in general) put our troops in danger by forcing unrealistic rules of engagement on them and then revel in the defeat of their own military.
We've become a Gulliver bound by our own politically correct strictures. The first battle of Fallujah was called off in April of 2004 because Sunni politicians in Iraq's parliament objected. The result was a major propaganda victory for al Qaeda, and a bloodier battle in November of 2004.
When the Moqtada al Sadr, an Iranian puppet, staged an uprising to coincide with the first battle of Fallujah, he was allowed to remain free, even though he was wanted for the murder of the moderate Shia cleric Majid al Khoie, because the leading Shia cleric, the Ayatollah Ali al Sistani, reportedly insisted upon it.
Today, Sadr's death squads are responsible for most of the sectarian killings in Iraq, and Sadr is considered the most powerful figure in the country.
Our attempts to appease the appeasers has cost us victory. Being overly careful not to appear to be the occupiers that liberals unjustly labelled us as, created an image of weakness that allowed the insurgent terrorists to manipulate world opinion.
The next time we need to invade a Muslim nation we should send Ethiopian troops who aren't bound by intentionally burdensome limitations and a pathetic need to appease leftist defeatists.
