Thursday, January 04, 2007

Horn Storm

I wondered if we'd helped plan the Ethiopian invasion and whether we'd get involved in Somalia.

It looks like that's a "yes" to both questions:


Years of low-key military assistance to Ethiopia have paid off. U.S. military trainers have helped raise the skill levels of Ethiopian troops and leaders. American instructors also provided assistance to Ethiopian planners, which helped make the Somalia operation possible. Meanwhile, in Djibouti, just north of Somalia, members of 1,500 man American counter-terrorism task force are on the move. The general direction is south, and the mission is to help round up Islamic terrorists now on the run again, with their Somali refuge gone.


This front is still active. With the jihadis scattered and running, we need to exploit the need of the jihadis to simply escape and live in order to kill them or capture them.

The question now is will we need more visible force levels for the pursuit of al Qaeda in the Horn or whether the Djibouti-based forces and naval assets in place are sufficient.