Here’s this story by Peter Beinart I was telling you about, “Return of the Nixon Doctrine — as Somalia shows, the US is letting others do its bidding. Here’s why that can’t last.” Now, for years, literally years, the Drive-By Media and the Democrats have pounded us incessantly, complaining and whining and moaning that Bush was too eager to go it alone. He was a cowboy. He was a frat boy. He shot from the hip. He was talking too much and taking too much upon himself. He wouldn’t rely on his allies. He wouldn’t work with the UN. He wouldn’t listen to allies. He wouldn’t kowtow to them. Now Peter Beinart at TIME Magazine is telling us in this piece that we’re letting the allies do too much in Somalia, and how Bush is outsourcing American foreign policy, and he says that we should be doing more and relying less on allies.
Excuse me?
You know, if you were on the left, you just have to know one thing: Bush is wrong no matter what he’s doing, and you are brilliant. No matter what Bush is doing, just come out and say it’s wrong, and you will be feted and you’ll be invited on roundtables on TV shows and you’ll get columns in TIME Magazine, and you will be thought to be among the smartest peoples in the room. Speaking of Somalia, try this: “Somali President arrives in Capital for the First Time in 40 Years — Somalia’s president flew into the beleaguered capital Mogadishu Monday, ten days as after his forces backed by Ethiopian troops, drove a rival Islamic movement from the city. The arrival of the president, who is 72, is highly symbolic. He took office in 2004 but he’s not set foot in Mogadishu for 40 years,” ten days after his forces backed by Ethiopian troops. This is a big deal in the war on terror, and as usual, Americans know nothing about it; not much is being reported about it by the Drive-Bys.
But it’s more correct to say Ethiopian troops backed by this president’s Somali forces, because the recognized Somali government barely has an army. If not for Ethiopia’s tanks and the Air Force the Islamists would still be in control of 90% of Somalia, and then there’s this from today as well, from Kismayo, Somalia. “A jungle hideout used by Islamic militants that is believed to be an Al-Qaeda base was on the verge of falling to Ethiopian and Somali troops, the defense minister said Wednesday.” These guys all retreated, the Islamic radicals all retreated after their defeat and they holed up in various hiding places, just like they did in Iraq, waiting to spring their insurgency, and these people followed them and rooted them out — and Peter Beinart writes a piece saying our allies are doing too much. To hell with that, Peter, these people are defending their own country, for crying out loud! They’re showing how to do it. Force! I don’t hear anybody over there talking about redeployment. It seems to me what was used here was a surge.