U.S. Special Forces accompanied Ethiopian troops in Somalia
Though the U.S. airstrike on potential al-Qaida targets in southern Somalia has been widely reported, the news that U.S. Special Forces troops accompanied the Ethiopian military in its invasion/intervention in Somalia should (but probably won’t) raise some eyebrows. Though it fits into the Bush Administration’s overall policy of going after terrorists and their allies wherever they may be, it does represent an interesting escalation of American involvement in the Horn of Africa’s myriad conflicts. Looked at one way, this intervention follows the model used in the Afghanistan invasion of 2001. Relatively small numbers of Special Forces troops aiding and accompanying local forces. In Afghanistan, the local forces were the Northern Alliance, in Somalia they are the Baidoa-based Transitional Government of Somalia and their Ethiopian allies. Also, and again, to no surprise, the U.S. gave intelligence information to the Ethiopians on the locations, positions, and dispositions of their Islamist foes.
For a Bush Administration which continues to take a lot of flak over the mess in Iraq, this “Stealth Intervention” in Somalia effectively eliminates a Taliban-like force from power, while managing to evade and avoid any real notice by the American public. Too bad, actually; Bush and his people need positive public relations in the foreign policy arena.
Keywords: Somalia, Ethiopia, Special Forces, America, United States, Afghanistan
Source and Resource:
Pentagon Sees Move in Somalia as Blueprint- By Mark Mazzetti—NY Times
Published: January 13, 2007
9:59:35 AM 
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