Somalia's UIC and Ethiopia at war as Ethiopia launches airstrikes and ground offensiv

[SeleucusNicator]

Is preventing the rise of a fundamentalist government important enough to mitigate the toll of the war, given that Somalia isn't the most powerful country on earth.

Toll of the war? That's the thing -- with Ethiopia entering the conflict, the United States no longer has to pay a blood-price to intervene in Somalia. We can merely give guns and/or money to some other country to do the fighting for us -- fighting it would do anyway. And that's a drop in the bucket for us, money-wise.

That's why I love proxy wars and cheer the arrival of situations where they become a possibility.

 

[stuge]

I'm not talking only about the toll on the U.S. I also mean the toll on the already
botched-up African horn.

 

[SeleucusNicator]

I don't believe that further war damage in that part of the world is inherently divergent from the strategic interests of the United States.

This is not a particularly relevant region; the only possible problem I could see coming out of the area becoming more "botched up" is continued piracy along the Somalian coast, and I think that the US Navy can take care of that pretty well (and relatively cheaply) if it gets too bad.

I would say it is preferable to the emergence of a strong authority that is hostile to us, yes.

 

[Neomega]

And what if Somalia wins, regardless of our support?

Then we have guaranteed enemies, in power.

It is ludicrous to say we need to support one side or the other, it's none of our business.