Saturday, July 06, 2013

What Do They Expect the Kenyans to Do?

Good grief, of course the Kenyans are setting up a friendly buffer zone in Somalia. That's why Kenya intervened in Somalia. If the so-called Somali government had been able to govern the region, Kenya would not have invaded to smash up al Shabab jihadis.

If this doesn't qualify for a "well, duh" response, I don't know what does:

The buffer state, or “security zone” as Kenyans are calling it, is known as Jubaland and sits just inside Somalia on its border with Kenya.

On July 1, and in angry tones, the government of Somalia asked Kenyan peacekeeping troops to leave the country – saying Nairobi was pushing to establish its own leader in Jubaland, and saying that in May, Kenyan troops took sides in factional fighting in Kismayo, the largest port in the area, that killed 65 Somalis and wounded another 155.

Hey, how about asking the jihadis to leave the country? Oh wait. That's why the Kenyans intervened--Somalia's "government" couldn't control the region and Kenya didn't like jihadis wandering off into Kenya from their cross-border sanctuary. Jihadis wandered freely because "Somalia" is a geographical term and not a political entity with any power over the territory of geographically defined Somalia.

And if the Kenyans hadn't busted up the jihadis, Somalia's nominal government itself would likely be run by some faction of jihadis. So the guys getting paychecks from foreign donors government owes a lot to foreigners willing to kill jihadis, which keeps the jihadis too weak to take over the nominal government.

But no good deed goes unresented, I suppose.