Kenya Invades Somalia. Does It Get Any Dumber?

[Goljano Lion]

http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/1 ... ny-dumber/
If the history of war teaches us anything, it's that invading a foreign country is dicey. Storming across too many borders was the undoing of many of the world's great conquerors, from Alexander the Great to Napoleon to the Nazis. The last few decades of US foreign policy - Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq - only underline how tricky invasions are, even for the most powerful. The last 20 years have also seen Somalia emerge with a particularly consistent record of chewing up anyone who arrives carrying a gun, including the U.N. and U.S. special operations troops (1992-3), Ethiopians (2006-9) and Ugandans and Burundians from an African Union peacekeeping force (2008-today).

So what does Kenya think it's doing? On Sunday, a force estimated variously at a few hundred to 2,000 Kenyan soldiers crossed the border into Somalia into pursuit of militants from the Somali Islamist group, al-Shabab. The invasion came after a rash of armed incursions into Kenya from Somalia. On Sept. 11, Somali gunmen killed British tourist David Tebbutt, 58, and abducted his wife Judith, 56, from a resort on the northern Kenyan coast. In a second attack on a nearby beach hotel on Oct. 1, another group of Somali gunmen kidnapped a 66-year-old disabled French tourist, Marie Dedieu, who was confirmed dead on Wednesday. And then on Oct. 13, a third group of kidnappers took two Spanish aid workers from Dadaab, a camp in northern Kenyan -- the biggest refugee settlement in the world, set up 20 years ago for those fleeing fighting and famine in Somalia.

Starting a war is not an obvious way to bolster a country's reputation for safety and security. Starting a war with an al-Qaeda affiliate who have previously carried out attacks abroad (in Kampala in July 2010 two al-Shabab suicide bombers killed 76 people) and who have been itching for an excuse to do the same to you carries even more obvious risks. But starting a war in which your invading forces are outnumbered from the beginning (al-Shabab has around 2,500 men at arms), and doing that just as the rainy season starts, is bat crazy.

Sure enough, by Wednesday the Kenyans and their Somali allies were stuck in torrential rains and thick mud 20 miles short of their first objective of the al-Shabab-ruled town Afmadow. Even if the occupiers can extract themselves from the literal quagmire, analysts unanimously agree they will find it all but impossible to avoid becoming militarily bogged down. Faced with al-Shabab's well-armed, experienced and more numerous guerrillas - fighters who two years ago saw off a far fiercer, better trained and bigger Ethiopian force - Kenya's soldiers seem headed for deadlock at best and, at worst, bloody defeat. What's worse, the Kenyan invasion seems likely to reunify al-Shabab just as it was in danger of splintering over disagreements about leadership and whether to accept aid to alleviate an ongoing famine in southern Somalia. It could even help restore al-Shabab's plummeting local support.

History may be littered with warnings about just this kind of action but still, rarely has disaster been so plainly foretold. As an al-Shabab spokesman, Ali Mohamud Rage, told the BBC, while vowing retaliatory attacks on Nairobi: "Kenya doesn't know war. We know war. We have fought against governments older and stronger than Kenya and we have defeated them."

Read more: http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/1 ... z1bO5iZCDN

[Meru]

that writer is idle, have you read the comments. everyone is bashing him. Kenya had no option but to go after al shaba. and boy oh boy we will kill them in their thousands. for every Kenyan soldier killed we will kill 20 al shabab AMEN!!

[XaliimoFarax]

Im not al-shabaab supporter but boy o boy do I hate foreigners into Somalia! For this reason alone I want those masked boys to destroy these fufus, invasion should never be tolerated.

I wonder what Kenyan army would be thinking since today al-shabaab slaughtered their bantu brothers hope they said the bismillah before hand.

[Meru]

Im not al-shabaab supporter but boy o boy do I hate foreigners into Somalia! For this reason alone I want those masked boys to destroy these fufus, invasion should never be tolerated.

I wonder what Kenyan army would be thinking since today al-shabaab slaughtered their bantu brothers hope they said the bismillah before hand.

DYING IN WAR IS VERY NORMAL. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN KENYA AND amisom IS THAT WE ARE FIGHTING FOR OUR COUNTRY. MAJORITY OF KENYA 85% SUPPORT THE WAR. we were provoked. AMISOM does not have that moral support. so we have a just cause. the morale is high, we are not invading Somalia, we are killing criminal. we have a superior weaponry air support and satellite intelligence, we can easily send more troops across the border.. things that AMISOM does not have. we will kill thousands of shabab. just tell me where your village is i tell Kenyan soldiers so that they treat your sisters well

[Goljano Lion]

Meru
how long it will take the untried Kenyan army to flash Al-kalaabta out of kismayo and southern Somalia

[XaliimoFarax]

Just war? Sheeko.com

I respect Kenya as a neighbour and a follow African but they are asking for war and war shall they get. It doesn’t matter whether you have the morale or not, at the end of the day Kenyans will be burying their dead soldiers very soon inshallah. And it will be that much sweeter cos your populace believe this al-shabaab propaganda.

Down with invaders.

Guul Somalia

[fatimazahra]

Im not al-shabaab supporter but boy o boy do I hate foreigners into Somalia! For this reason alone I want those masked boys to destroy these fufus, invasion should never be tolerated.

I wonder what Kenyan army would be thinking since today al-shabaab slaughtered their bantu brothers hope they said the bismillah before hand.

DYING IN WAR IS VERY NORMAL. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN KENYA AND amisom IS THAT WE ARE FIGHTING FOR OUR COUNTRY. MAJORITY OF KENYA 85% SUPPORT THE WAR. we were provoked. AMISOM does not have that moral support. so we have a just cause. the morale is high, we are not invading Somalia, we are killing criminal. we have a superior weaponry air support and satellite intelligence, we can easily send more troops across the border.. things that AMISOM does not have. we will kill thousands of shabab. just tell me where your village is i tell Kenyan soldiers so that they treat your sisters well

One thing people don't understand that is that kenya is not interested in invading your country all we want is to kill al-shabab and that is what we are doing all the towns the kenyan army have captured so far is being handed to the the TFG so why are sympathising to al-shabab. Yes, death is natural we will either kill them or they will kill us but we will fight with al-shabab no going back.

[Shift]

Kenyans are a walk in the park,even the cartoonist doesn't take them serious.

[Meru]

Meru
how long it will take the untried Kenyan army to flash Al-kalaabta out of kismayo and southern Somalia

i cant tell since it is said there is heavy raining in south somalia and roads have been turned to mud tracks that even Kenyan tanks are going slowly that has hampered troop movement. but what i can tell you is that when we are done, al shabab will be singing kumbaya. WE ARE NOT AMISOM, shabab asked for it, soon the vultures and the beast of the wild will be feasting on the shabab carcases

[Goljano Lion]

Kenyans are a walk in the park,even the cartoonist doesn't take them serious.

since the creation of the Kenyan army, this is the first time they left their barracks to go to war, these boys they gonna miss their beer

[Shift]

Gol,
Aniga kuwan wax noolba uma arko,waa comedians with guns.

[fatimazahra]

Gol,
Aniga kuwan wax noolba uma arko,waa comedians with guns.

Freedom is coming dear we will liberate somalia from al-shabab soon.

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Jets+hit+a ... index.html

[barakaboy10]

Kenya has the right to defend itself and that includes crossing the border into Somalia if that deemed necessary. even though i would have never wanted to see Kenya's army entering into Somalia, i think it has reached a point where such an outcome has become inevitable because of what has happened in Kenya recently.

no country would ever tolerate what has happened in Kenya, so why should we think Kenya shouldn't protect its citizens and interest?!

viva kenya

[fatimazahra]

Kenya has the right to defend itself and that includes crossing the border into Somalia if that deemed necessary. even though i would have never wanted to see Kenya's army entering into Somalia, i think it has reached a point where such an outcome has become inevitable because of what has happened in Kenya recently.

no country would ever tolerate what has happened in Kenya, so why should we think Kenya shouldn't protect its citizens and interest?!

viva kenya

exactly.

[barakaboy10]

Kenya has the right to defend itself and that includes crossing the border into Somalia if that deemed necessary. even though i would have never wanted to see Kenya's army entering into Somalia, i think it has reached a point where such an outcome has become inevitable because of what has happened in Kenya recently.

no country would ever tolerate what has happened in Kenya, so why should we think Kenya shouldn't protect its citizens and interest?!

viva kenya

exactly.

of course.