Ethiopia vs Somalia

[WRESTLINGFAN]

<p>Somalia has a very fragile government that has been dealing with Jihadists. Ethipoia with a christian majority has been bombing key Somali positions</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061225/ap_on_re_af/somalia_76">http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061225/ap_on_re_af/somalia_76</a></p>

[booster11373]

The Brawl For Nothig At All

[booster11373]

<p>The Brawl For Nothing At All</p>

[cougarjake13]

<p>ethopian jets bomb somalia airport</p><p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/fc/world/somalia">http://news.yahoo.com/fc/world/somalia</a></p>

[lintpit]

had an Ethiopian girlfriend in college. SHE was the Bomb.&nbsp; Seriously sad to see that even on the holiest Christian holiday there can't be peace.

[alwat]

<strong>booster11373</strong> wrote:<br /><p>The Brawl For Nothing At All</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Not quite Blacks against muslims&nbsp;</p>

[led37zep]

<strong>lintpit</strong> wrote:<br />had an Ethiopian girlfriend in college. <p>Ron has his own radio show.&nbsp; So you're both doing good.</p>

[DarkHippie]

They're fighting over one bag of corn and a sprig of parsley

[Sheeplovr]

i like ethepoian food<br />

[reeshy]

<strong>Sheeplovr</strong> wrote:<br />i like ethepoian food<br /><p>What?&nbsp;&nbsp; A bag o' dirt??????</p>

[A.J.]

Keep an eye on this -- it's going to become more important.

[Marc with a c]

i think the skinny's will win.

[Earlshog]

<p>Whats the opening&nbsp;line?</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I'd say Ethiopia should be 9 point fav... The spread would be higher by Ethiopia is on the road.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>the anarchy in Somalia is quite reminiscent of the Giants locker room... </p>

[NewYorkDragons80]

It's a pretty sad business, but Somalia is getting more and more dangerous and Ethiopia is rightly concerned about Islamism spilling onto its borders.&nbsp; I don't know why people decided to start reporting this now, since Ethiopia's been involved since at least the fall.

[Freakshow]

Ethiopia just openly admitted to have troops in Somalia. Ethiopia
is a 'christian' country, but also has 45 percent muslim. And it's
the only country in africa that was never a colony.

I agree with AJ, this is going to be very important.

[TokeOne]

<p>Ethiopia is fighting alongside the Somalia government forces. It is more correctly Ethiopia and Somalia vs. the Islamist miltias that control Somalia.</p><p>And Sheepy is right, Ethiopian food is delicious. There is a restaurant here in the Design District in Miami named Sheba &nbsp;that serves a steak tartar to die for. It is very peppery, spicy food, but delicious. </p><p>&nbsp;</p>

[Earlshog]

<strong>Freakshow</strong> wrote:<br />Ethiopia just openly admitted to have troops in Somalia. Ethiopia is a 'christian' country, but also has 45 percent muslim. <strong>And it's the only country in africa that was never a colony.</strong> I agree with AJ, this is going to be very important. <font face="Helv" size="2"><p>true they are one of the oldest countries in the world, although they were occupied by Italy during world war two... whats going to be interesting to see as this plays out is if they go into Mogadishu or not... They are saying no but they also said they were not going to invade... </p></font>

[Earlshog]

<strong>TokeOne</strong> wrote:<br /><p>Ethiopia is fighting alongside the Somalia government forces. <strong>It is more correctly Ethiopia and Somalia vs. the Islamist miltias that control Somalia.</strong></p><p>And Sheepy is right, Ethiopian food is delicious. There is a restaurant here in the Design District in Miami named Sheba &nbsp;that serves a steak tartar to die for. It is very peppery, spicy food, but delicious. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>don't forget the Eritha angle... They are not very happy with terms of the treaty when that war ended... in some ways they are fighting Eritha&nbsp;by proxy here</p>

[Yerdaddy]

<p>Nice to see so much interest in the subject. Good comments too. </p><p>I started background research for an article on Somali refugees escaping to Yemen. The best source on the compex situation in Somalia and it's neighbors is the International Crisis Group. They've got the people on the ground, good contacts, they've been there for a long time, and they're one of the most respected analysts in the business. <a href="http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=1232&amp;l=1" target="_blank">Here's their background page</a>.</p><p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6212049.stm" target="_blank">BBC also has alot of basic background.</a></p><p>Keep in mind the Somali &quot;government&quot; is something cobbled together by the UN and US from the old warlords - the same pieces of shit we were fighting in 93. The motivation for trying to unify and legitmizing these guys was that the Islamist&nbsp;militias were joining forces and taking over large parts of the country. The US made the decision last year to start backing these guys financially to prevent the Islamists from taking over - they feared another Taliban that would welcome al-Qaeda back into the country. It was one of several bad choices of what to do. </p><p>My&nbsp;opinion is it was too little too late. The Islamists took over most of the country in, I think, September, backed by Eritrea. The &quot;government&quot; has been hold up in one province pissing and moaning about which one of them is in charge and that they need more money from the international community. </p><p>Now, ICG had been reporting for several years&nbsp;that the Somali Islamists were not supportive of al-Qaeda and that they probably wanted international recognition which would require them to shun al-Qaeda. Somali was a failed state for so long that their support came from people who just wanted some sense of order, so the relatively moderate Islamists largely founded the Islamic Courts Militia. Once the States was seen to be funding the warlord government, the extremists gained advantage and I think&nbsp;have taken&nbsp;over. </p><p>No doubt Ethiopia and Eritrea are fighting this as a proxy war. (Even Yemen and Saudis were&nbsp;equipping the government against the Islamists.) Ethiopia may even make a grab for Somali territory simply because the breakaway of Eritrea cut off all of Ethiopia's access to the sea. </p><p>What I don't get is how we've fumbled the ball in the last six months and allowed things to get so bad when we've got our regional military base right next door in Djibouti. I bet we've still got bad intel resources there, like in 93, and most of what they need is in Iraq. </p><p>Let me just add a repetition from my work in Yemen that in 15 to 20 years Yemen - a short cigar boatride away -&nbsp;itself is going to be a failed state because of the lack of water, doubling of the population in that time period, corruption and the fact that they're going to run out of oil in 2012 - currently 70% of their GDP. That region is fucked and it's going to be one more thing that we're going to have to deal with sooner or later. </p>

[Freakshow]

Mission Accomplished!

Ethiopian troops are in Mogidishu. Local warlords are flipping alliances, and the ICU leaders are resigning.

[TokeOne]

<p>What a mess this will be now. The TFG warlord allies are a who's who list of war criminals from the old Aidid reign, including his US marine son. </p><p>It is interesting that the angle in the States is simply Islamists are bad, therefore the guys fighting them must be good. They are really playing up the angle of the three suspected bombers being protected by the Islamist Council. Which is true, they are bad, but most of the guys fighting them aren't good either. And it isn't like Ethiopia has selfless interest involved. </p>