Dump Duhbya

Somalia — the Sick Man of Africa

U.S. Sees Growing Threats In Somalia Al-Qaeda’s Influence, Possible War With Ethiopia Are Concerns; By Karen DeYoung, Washington Post Staff Writer

Al-Qaeda, long hovering in the shadows, has established itself as a presence in the Somali capital, say U.S. officials, who see a growing risk that Somalia will become a new haven for terrorists to launch attacks beyond its borders.

Meanwhile, a major war — promoted and greeted approvingly by Osama bin Laden — looms between Somalia [Muslim] and Ethiopia [Christian], threatening a regional conflagration likely to draw more foreign extremists into the Horn of Africa.

Among administration officials, Congress, U.S. allies and other interested and fearful parties, there is a rising sense that Somalia is spinning rapidly out of control. …

“The Council of Islamic Courts is now controlled by . . . East Africa al-Qaeda cell individuals,” Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Jendayi Frazer said of Mogadishu’s new rulers. …

In a taped statement released in July, bin Laden called on Somalis to begin preparing for regional war. He recalled the 1994 withdrawal of U.S. military forces after a warlord attack killed 18 U.S. troops, saying, “This time, victory will be far easier.”

U.S. intelligence officials described the statement at the time as part of bin Laden’s failing claim to the leadership of a worldwide Islamic movement, despite the dispersion of the al-Qaeda network by the U.S. terrorism fight. Now they are not so certain. …

Events in Somalia could provide an immediate spark for a wider war in the Horn of Africa; the roots of such a conflict would be tangled in complicated, long-standing regional animosities. The United Nations reported last month that Ethiopia has sent thousands of troops to help prop up the two-year-old transitional government in Baidoa. The same report said Eritrea, whose 1970s war with Ethiopia is still smoldering over an unsettled border dispute, has deployed thousands of troops to train and fight alongside the Islamists. Arab neighbors and sympathizers are also reportedly providing funds.

Ethiopia, a Christian-dominated nation, also fought a war with Somalia in the 1970s, over the ethnic Somali and largely Muslim Ethiopian province of Ogaden.

Last week, Somali Islamists threatened a “major attack” if the Ethiopians do not withdraw by Tuesday. Ethiopia has said, in essence, bring it on.

Somalia descended into chaos after U.S. and U.N. troops withdrew in 1994, with warring clans competing for power and the rest of the world turning away. When the Islamist push began several years ago, the Bush administration started paying attention — and funding locally unpopular warlords to gather intelligence and gird for battle.

“By making a bad bet on the warlords to do our bidding,” incoming Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) charged last week, “the administration has managed to strengthen the Courts, weaken our position and leave no good options. This is one of the least-known but most dangerous developments in the world, and the administration lacks a credible strategy to deal with it.“ …

John Prendergast of the International Crisis Group, who worked on Africa issues in the Clinton National Security Council and State Department, called the current administration’s policy “idiotic.” Tacit U.S. support for Ethiopia’s military incursion has “incalculably strengthened” the Courts’ appeal to Somali nationalism and “made our counterterrorism agenda nearly impossible to implement,” he said.

Duhbya: “He’s King Midas in reverse, he’s King Midas with a curse.” mjh

Uncategorized

The Cut Amendments [updated 12-19-06]

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media

James Madison … made the Bill of Rights a reality. Madison introduced the Bill of Rights into the first session of Congress in 1789, and he used Virginia’s Declaration of Rights as the model. Madison originally supported the adoption of 17 amendments, which was eventually trimmed to 12, of which 10 were adopted….

So, what were the 7 amendments that got cut or the two that almost made it? mjh

[updated 12-18-06]

Walking Raven sent me this link: A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 – 1875. Our beloved First Amendment was originally the third article, preceded by Article I, which specified the number of representatives, and Article II, which specified that pay raises for Representatives and Senators could only apply after an election. Those were the two amendments/articles that were dropped before the Bill of Rights was passed. (Still don’t know about the other 5 of the original 17.)

[updated 12-19-06]

[mjh: I should have just checked NewMexiKen first.]

NewMexiKen: The Bill of Rights

The draft first amendment concerned the numbers of constituents for each representative. It has never been ratified. The draft second amendment was ratified by the required number of states in 1992. It took effect as Amendment XXVII (”No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.”)

Uncategorized

Towards a More Perfect Union

I believe government should have nothing to do with marriage. Government should only issue “union licenses” as the contract between two individuals, regardless of gender. Marriage should be a church rite performed in addition to the civil union, if the couple so chooses.

N.J. Legislature Votes to Allow Same-Sex Unions By Robin Shulman, Washington Post Staff Writer

With a mandate from New Jersey’s highest court to offer gay couples the same rights as heterosexuals, the state legislature voted Thursday to create civil unions but stopped short of using the word “marriage.”

Gov. Jon S. Corzine (D) has said he will sign the bill into law, making New Jersey the third state, after Vermont and Connecticut, to offer civil unions, which extend to gay men and lesbians all the rights state law affords married people but give them a separate status. [Only Massachusetts has legalized marriage for gay couples.]

The problem is that “separate but equal” status we have rejected in matters of race. Equality requires equal status. Let all couples obtain identical “unions” and leave it to the churches to decide who they will marry. mjh

poetry

Crusoe, by George Bilgere

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media

Poem: “Crusoe” by George Bilgere, from The Good Kiss. © The University of Akron Press.

Crusoe

When you’ve been away from it long enough,
You begin to forget the country
Of couples, with all its strange customs
And mysterious ways. Those two
Over there, for instance: late thirties,
Attractive and well-dressed, reading
At the table, drinking some complicated
Coffee drink. They haven’t spoken
Or even looked at each other in thirty minutes,

But the big toe of her right foot, naked
In its sandal, sometimes grazes
The naked ankle bone of his left foot,

The faintest signal, a line thrown

Between two vessels as they cruise
Through this hour, this vacation, this life,
Through the thick novels they’re reading,
Her toe saying to his ankle,

Here’s to the whole improbable story
Of our meeting, of our life together
And the oceanic richness
Of our mingled narrative
With its complex past, with its hurts
And secret jokes, its dark closets
And delightful sexual quirks,
Its occasional doldrums, its vast
Future we have already peopled
With children. How safe we are

Compared to that man sitting across the room,
Marooned with his drink
And yellow notebook, trying to write
A way off his little island.

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." — Sam Adams