Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Pligganease]

[Milwaukiedave]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Pligganease]

[stevemcgarrett]

Ya-ta boy:

I got it. You've got to be very patient with a lot of the flaming (mostly leftist) posters here whose historical understanding is limited to what they read in TIME magazine last week.

[Adventurer]

[Ya-ta Boy]

Did you write a paragraph and then post only alternate lines? This is not coherent:

[Adventurer]

[quote="Ya-ta Boy"]Did you write a paragraph and then post only alternate lines? This is not coherent:

[

All right, I will make it coherent for you. The government did not have mass support among the Somali people. They still do not have it. They have to get the backing of the various clans that wield a lot of power. They have reached Mogadishu through the backing of Ethiopia. Yes, the government is recognized by the U.N., and I am aware of that. However, what about the people of Somalia? Also, would American and Ethiopian intervention have some serious, negative consequences at a certain point. I understand people want to bomb suspect Al Qaeda members, but if many civilians get killed, I don't think that will please the natives and make them restless. I am sure you understand where I am coming from on this one. The Somalis don't share the same view coming out of Washington or Addis Ababa. They have their national pride. How that is affected by the intervention of both countries must be taken into account.

[shifter2009]

The thing that kinda bothers me is the notion that United States needs to fix war so no one else gets hurt. I mean really, we've spent the money to make the most accurate, civillian friendly weapons in the history of man and people still complain. As if we people think we are hiding the really nice stuff somewhere. Some people here seem to think we should hire ninjas because this whole "explosives" thing is just to risky. These are some of the last people to mention some of the stuff THEIR countrys pulled when they were the world's colonial powers. Can't please everybody.

[Adventurer]

[shifter2009]

[mateomiguel]

If the entire population of your country consists of perpetually drugged-up militiamen of several warlords, you don't need the support of the people to become a legitimate government (and, in fact, it could be said that the people are incapable of giving support in their current state). You need the support of the warlords.

However, if the warlords are only interested in getting their militias to fight each other, they will never endorse a higher power that will make them stop slaughtering each other.

What can you do when everyone in the place you claim is your country wants to kill half of the other people in the country? Its like trying to enforce law over a zombie apocalypse.

The UN tried to fix the place once already with free food handouts. In the end they realized that the only thing they were doing with the free food was perpetuating the conflict. With their food needs taken care of, the warlords' militias had more time to chew betelnut and shoot guns at each other. This was around the time of Black Hawk Down. The warlords were also showboating it, being as melodramatic as possible, because they believed they were the centerpoint of an international stage, and they wanted to become the most popular.

The writer of the book Black Hawk down encountered this attitude when he went to Mogadishu to interview people for his book. Everyone that he met were reluctant to tell such a small time journalist his story, because they were holding out for CNN and BBC reporters. They were after fame, and believed that the book author was the first of a new stream of reporters who were going to be coming back to cover the epic conflict. Mark Bowden (the author of Black Hawk Down) only was able to get stories from his interviewees if he was able to convince them that he was only reporter coming, and if they didn't tell their stories they wouldn't have them told, ever. In the book there are a scant few stories from the side of the Somalis, so it looks like he wasn't too successful.

Therefore, it seems to be that outside interference only perpetuates the violence in Somalia. I propose letting the Somalis kill each other for as long as they want to without outside intervention of any kind. They might eventually stop fighting on their own.

[stevemcgarrett]

mateomiguel:

Your assessment is harsh but on the mark, in my estimation.

On another note:

If we have learned any lesson from the Iraqi conflict, it should be that we cannot impose democracy on a people who are not ready to embrace it.

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Adventurer]