A crowd cheer after a display by Islamist fighters on November 4, 2008. Somalia's hardline Shebab group on Wednesday took over the southern port of Merka, a key entry point for food aid, further tightening the Islamists' grip on the war-torn Horn of Africa country. (AFP/File/Abdurashid Abukar)From Yahoo News/McClatchy News:
NAIROBI, Kenya — Al Shabaab, a radical Islamist group that U.S. officials say is tied to al Qaida , has methodically seized much of southern Somalia and is poised to take the capital, Mogadishu , as the country's internationally backed government nears collapse.
The rise of al Shabaab — from the Arabic word for "youth" — in many ways represents the very scenario that the Bush administration sought to avoid two years ago, when it quietly backed an invasion by Somalia's neighbor, Ethiopia , to drive a federation of hard-line Islamic courts out of Mogadishu .
The invasion aimed to forestall a Taliban -style regime that could have become an East African haven for jihadists. But diplomats, regional analysts and former Shabaab fighters say that it's fueled a diverse Islamist insurgency that's now stronger and more sophisticated than ever, and seems bent on retaking control of the country.
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My Comment: Somalia is not only a text book example of how far a failed state can fail, but also an example of the costs and commitment necessary to bring some form of stability to the country. For Somalia .... the resources that are being used to rehabilitate the country reminds me of that drop in a bucket image.