Word: somali
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...Sept. 20 with a tough letter from Secretary of State Warren Christopher to Boutros-Ghali protesting the military emphasis. On Saturday, less than 24 hours before the fateful helicopter raid started, Christopher called Boutros-Ghali to urge a stepped-up effort to bring about a political settlement among various Somali factions, only to be told blandly, "We are already doing all that...
...fact that Russian instability -- or Somali anarchy or Bosnian carnage -- keeps ringing at odd hours, and often on weekends, shows that turmoil has no respect for civilized comfort. More fundamentally, the alarms amount to further proof that the world is far from being a tidier place without Soviet- American antagonism to kick it around. If the Kremlin no longer helps to orchestrate conflicts in remote countries, it presides over a veritable Mongolian hot pot of disorder at home. At the same time, impoverished lands like Somalia, with a scant sense of nationhood, remain just as prey to pandemonium as they...
...March 31, 1994, withdrawal date of U.S. troops is "etched in stone," there is little doubt Somalia will revert to the ruinous state that inspired America's intervention in the first place. But a policy that truly cared about ends would be open- ended. However one defines the Somali mission, Clinton's desire to finish it "in the right way" ought to mean staying until the possibility of reversion is more than just "reasonably" foreclosed. Seeking an exit strategy before sailing in harm's way is smart, but it must be related to the mission's goal; an arbitrary deadline...
Maybe so. But it is misleading to blame the diversity of the new world for the confusion in Somalia. The chaos has been there a long time. And it is also a very old story when the most wholesome moral intentions (such as the American desire to feed starving Somali children) lead down a road into nightmares of entanglement and unintended consequences. The best, brightest American policy thinking went off a cliff in Vietnam, for example...
...obviously futile to march Americans into the midst of long-standing Somali blood feuds. To do so creates an explosive dynamic in which the Americans are the new villains and targets: more Americans die, more Somali civilians die as Americans grow frustrated and retaliate with bigger gunships, hatreds grow deeper, and the tragedy is compounded...