It seemed to me recently like anti-piracy efforts would provide the diplomatic cover to go in and really tear up the jihadis.
This effort is surely necessary because Plans A and B, to use low-key special forces operations and helping allies do the job, are no longer enough to keep the region from becoming a new office for al Qaeda (Tip to Strategypage emails):
For several years the U.S. military has fought a covert war in Somalia, using gunships, drones and Special Forces to break up suspected terror networks -- and enlisting Ethiopia's aid in propping up a pro-U.S. "transitional" government. It's a relatively unknown front in the "war on terror," and one where the U.S. and its allies are losing ground, fast.
Two years ago, the U.S. military fought alongside Ethiopian troops in a lightning-fast armored assault deep into Somalia aimed at destroying the Islamic government, which the Pentagon suspected of harboring Al Qaeda operatives. Today the Islamists are back, waging a brutal insurgency that has killed thousands of people and steadily gained ground against the occupying Ethiopians and their allies in the transitional government.
So with the enemy too strong for special operations solutions, and the African Union and Ethiopian options fizzling out as solutions, will we do nothing or will we send in a multi-brigade punitive operation that tries to atomize the jihadis and buy some more time and ability to go back to Plans A or B?
