| The same reasons in which we were originally intending to go into Somalia are reason enough to return.
Somalia provides easy access to the entire region and a safe harbor to station our troops. The anarchist government and the poverty of the people make for a reasonably easy method to show our ability to win the hearts and minds (to steal a line from the Viet Nam playbook)of the native population.
There is also the need to prove to ourselves that while we left it was not in cowardice. It was a stupid thing to do but the polititians of the world are the major players in the world of stupidity.
The major reason to return is that the people of that nation if you can even call it that as it exists today are in need of government, if the lack of a government makes it still qualify as a nation. This is a place in which starvation has become a way of life. Drought, famine, war and all of the biblical plauges exist within it's borders.
This is a place that has a geographical uniqueness that makes it ideal to the area. Provided that the US creates deep water harbors and gets the airports up to modern standards Somalia will provide the US military forces with a close in location to any threat in the Persian Gulf region, it is even close to such threats as Libya another nation which still has threat potential.Ethiopia and other countries such as Sudan are close neighbors as is Yeman just across the Guld of Aden. The port in Yeman is still not among the safest to US ships the site of the bombing of the Cole. Ethiopia's near Dictator on Somalia's Eastern border with his continueing war with Eritea has created more than a few problems for this nation as well.
The presence of valuble strategic metal deposits make for a unique need to protect the country. This is a place in need of protection more than exploitation. The need for the American people to adopt a nation has not been more clear since the Japanese took the Phillipines.
Keep 'em Flying |
