Somalia has been described as unfixable many a time, however this is simply untrue. Time and time again we have seen, when Somalis can put their guns away, shake hands and go back to work, as if by magic everything works again. Volunteer committees collect garbage and enroll schoolchildren, the Somali economy, already the toughest I know of and the only thing to survive the civil war, booms. Law and order sweeps the land and people take to it with incredible enthusiasm. Somalis are predisposed to building a prosperous and lawful state. So why is it that Somalia is plagued by banditry, lawlessness and food shortages? It is because Somalia has become addicted to revenge. Revenge has become the catharsis to which all other considerations are brushed aside. And no amount of revenge ever seems adequate. Whoever manages to gather up stability or economic success or power, immediately expends it upon devastating their enemies, who had done the same to them just before. Whether it be Puntland avenging 1992 upon Mogadishu, Somaliland avenging 2002 upon Puntland or Mogadishu avenging 2007 upon Puntland (which is next up in the cycle of revenge) it never seems to end. When will it end?

I don't buy the 9/11 conspiracy theory chiefly because it is unnecessary. The USA has never needed any justification for invading other countries. The USA has not invaded anyone recently because it's also counterproductive. Wars cost money, political capital, and economic resources, all of which are better spent elsewhere. Japan and Germany are economic powerhouses today because they were constitutionally barred from wasting money on weapons and wars. 9/11 slipped past the USA administration because they're incompetent, not because it's an inside job. Even Bangladesh did a better job with their hurricane than the USA did, and theirs was 100x worse. They're just ******. If they had insidious plans they would screw those up too. In fact they do, those are the ones that are complete f***-ups, like arming the Shi'ites to fight the Sunnis, then arming the Sunnis to fight the Shi'ites, now they're just fighting both. That's a classic USA foot-shot, bullsie right in the bone.

You can't "create peace" through more war. This is a ****** idea.

Where were the calls to stop the fighting in April? Or May? Or June, July, August, September and October, when hundreds of thousands of people fled and people lost their lives every single day? Why only now, when the Ethiopian military is beginning to lose, is it the time to stop the fighting? I recall you were the biggest supporter of more and harsher crackdowns on Mogadishu. Well, this is the result of that policy, that you supported and defended. In your own small way, you have been partially responsible for a million people living in IDP camps and thousands of innocent civilians dead, as well as the thousands of the bravest and most noble youths of Mogadishu, who have died fighting and are not counted, since they are "terrorists". The young people of Somalia, the future of Somalia, is what you and your friends are currently at war with.

The sad fact is they will never be judged for their crimes. Like Batista or Pinochet they will live in exile and die peacefully in their beds, protected and exhonourated by the USA. History is not so kind of course, and of course everyone faces a judgement of a different sort after death...

Living in the same city as civilians is not the same as "hiding behind them". Ethiopian and collaborator forces commit atrocities because they hope that will destroy the insurgents spirits. Tactics and strategy do not enter into it, other than perhaps psychological warfare. It is simply monstrous evil. The civilians the Shabbab, tribal resistance or UIC forces kill have two critical differences. One, they did not kill them on purpose, and two they try to avoid doing it. Ethiopian and collaborator forces deliberately and methodically slaughter the civilians who they deem to be "pro resistance". It is cruel and unnecessary, and does nothing to stop the resistance. It is simply revenge and inhumanity, the petty and personal vendettas of the warlords who make up the TFG against the people who rejected them so emphatically last year.

Are there even 54,000 people in Las Anod to displace?

Peaceful resolution!

When Yeey can set foot outside of Villa Somalia without a single armed guard, and walk among the people of Mogadishu without fear, then I will call him President of Somalia. Until that day, he is simply one more pretend president held aloft by the gun alone. How ironic it is. Yeey fought against Siad Barre, who took power with the gun and held it with the gun, and yet here he is, doing exactly the same thing. He held power in Puntland with the gun, took power in Baidoa with the gun, took Mogadishu with the gun, and now holds it with the gun. He is nothing, and rules noone. The gun rules him and the gun rules Somalia.

This is Maakhir, at least as I understand it to be.

Abdullahi Yusuf will be cold in his grave long before he will ever be president of a united Somalia. I agree though it was a smart trade to exchange Somali independence so Yusuf could be governor of Bay and the Shabelle. Totally worth it.

He's a complete nobody, and he was picked by default, he's the only deputy PM that wasn't a close ally of Geedi. A/Y says as much "he's temporary until I can pick someone else".

http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=599650

It'll be Ali Mahdi, I think this was decided months ago.

Now taking into account Somaliland's capture of Las Anod, and indicating the regions outside any particular regional administration, or at least very loosely associated with it. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Somalia_map_states_regions_districts.png

Puntland seems to be talking a lot of big smack talk about kicking Somaliland out of Las Anod, but this seems the height of hubris. The people fighting in the streets of Las Anod, on BOTH sides, are from Las Anod, not Hargeisa or Garowe.` Somaliland is camped outside the city, and Puntland is a hundred miles away. What this comes down to is that Habsade has a responsibility to get the best possible deal for his people. Puntland's deal has been crap, let's be honest with ourselves. If Somaliland offered a better deal, isn't that for the best?

Johnny B, check your PM

He's alive today, or at least he was as of a few years ago. His ancestors defeated the Qalaafe Imamate that ruled most of central and southern Somalia and parts of Somali Galbeed, and set up their own Imamate in Mudug, Galgadud and Upper Shabelle in the 1600s. This Imamate became a client state of the Sultan of Zanzibar, who empowered them to be the Sultan's proxy along the Somali coast of the Indian Ocean. In the 1700s this Imamate took over Shingani and the Imam moved his capital there. They lost Mudug and most of Galgadud to Yusuf Kenadiid, who then created the Sultanate of Hobyo in the 1878. Around this time Zanzibar sold their influence in Somalia to Italy, who ended the Imamate's pseudo-independence along with the ********* Sultanate and the city states of Hamarweyn, Marka and Barawe, and established their colony of Italian Somaliland.

It's looking really serious. Maakhir has blocked the main highway to Bosaso and send thousands of soldiers to Laag, which is maybe an hour or two away from Bosaso along the highway. Unless someone backs down there's going to be war.

Does anyone know about his family tree? He is the direct descendant of all the previous Imams of his tribe, which once ruled much of southern Somalia.

What of Buuhoodle, Taleex, Xudun and Boocane districts? Does Somaliland control all of Sool, or do some districts remain in Puntland hands? Or did Puntland ever control outside of Las Anod?

Puntland's economy, territories and the very fabric of its state integrity are all under attack, both from external and internal actors. While the invasion of Sool by Somaliland and tensions with Maakhir have grabbed headlines, the corruption of Adde Musa's administration coupled with economic stagnation and hyperinflation (an phenomenon known as "stagflation") has done enormous damage to the Puntland economy and destroyed Puntlander's trust in the administration. The soldiers tasked with countering the threat posed by Somaliland and Maakhir for instance, have not been paid in months, nor have the authorities in Sool who are expected to risk everything by opposing Somaliland. With all these enormous pressures upon Puntland, the Adde Musa administration still insists on pouring enormous manpower and money into defending and supporting the lame duck Mogadishu TFG administration, opening up a "third front" upon Puntland's already teetering and enfeebled strength and finances. The death blow to Puntland may be the very thing that many are so in favor of that they riot in support of it, a full mobilization and full scale war against Somaliland. Puntland, absurdly overstretched, is now committing itself to a war against a state that has good finances, well paid and equipped soldiers and administrators in very high spirits, at precisely the time at which loyalty to Puntland is at its lowest, their soldiers are mutinous, and their administrators are defecting or seceding in droves.

BAIDOA, Somalia Oct 18 (Garowe Online) - Ethiopian military officers in the Somali town of Baidoa ordered local police to stop a meeting of Cabinet ministers who have expressed their opposition to the administration of Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi. Some 22 Somali Cabinet ministers were supposed to hold a meeting in Baidoa Thursday, but the meeting was shut down prematurely by police, sources said. The order to stop the meeting came from Ethiopian commanders, government sources in Baidoa said. "They [Ethiopians] said the Cabinet cannot meet without [Prime Minister] Gedi present," said a local security source familiar with the incident. The 22 Somali government ministers issued a statement last week threatening to resign if Premier Gedi refuses to appear in front of parliament and face a vote of confidence motion, a move many believe is supported by President Abdullahi Yusuf. Prime Minister Gedi flew to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa yesterday to hold talks with senior Ethiopian and African Union officials. Somalia's interim parliament postponed debate over Gedi's future until Saturday, when the prime minister is supposed to return. Premier Gedi, who has refused pressures to resign, told Mogadishu-based radio earlier this week that there can be no Cabinet meeting without him as chair. Ethiopian troops deployed in Somalia late last year to install Gedi's interim government in Mogadishu, until then controlled by the Islamic Courts movement. Source: Garowe Online

U.S. officials say they opposed the Ethiopian incursion at first. But eventually the Pentagon provided crucial satellite photos to the Ethiopians that helped crush the Islamic Courts militias. This was Washington's first military engagement in the Horn of Africa region since 1993, when 18 American soldiers died in a botched UN peace-enforcing operation popularized in the movie "Black Hawk Down." Today, the faint sounds of propellers mutter over Mogadishu for hours every day. Embittered city residents say they are CIA drones launched from offshore warships, eavesdropping on local cell phone calls. If so, American intelligence officers have a lot of paranoia to sort through. Ordinary people threatened Related links * A man sleeps inside destroyed building A man sleeps inside destroyed building Photo * Audio slideshow: City of fear * Mogadishu fear Mogadishu fear Photos * Map locating Mogadishu Map locating Mogadishu Graphic Violent intimidation is fabled in Mogadishu. In recent months, Somali radio journalists have been shot on their way to work, blown up in their cars and had their offices raked by gunfire to dissuade them from reporting negatively on either the government or the Islamists. But less well-known is the explosion in threats against ordinary people. Most appear to come from technology-savvy rebels. "The calls are very matter-of-fact," said Ahmed, a telecommunications expert in Mogadishu who began receiving the dreaded "Private Number" calls after bidding for a government contract. He asked that his full name not be used. "They say, 'The bullet is coming' or 'Kiss your children goodbye tonight,'" Ahmed said. "Then they hang up." An impoverished man named Abdul was told: "You will be asking for water soon" -- a Somali reference to the burning thirst that comes from being gut-shot. His offense? Ironing the trousers of delegates at a recent Somali peace conference. He quit immediately and has sunk back to scrubbing clothes in his neighborhood for a pittance. "The insurgents are threatening more and more people, it's true," admitted Abdi Hassan Awale, Mogadishu's overwhelmed police chief. "Their aim is to cripple us. We can't control the mobile phones." Awale noted that Hormuud, the Somali cell phone service, hawks phone cards on street corners for as little as $3, without contracts. Those making the threats block their phones' numbers. They use the card once. Their identities are untraceable. Another form of intimidation is simply killing without warning. According to more than 20 independent interviews, a sampling of spontaneous political murders in Mogadishu in recent weeks includes a tea-seller shot when she sold food to despised Ethiopian patrols in the Hawl Wadaag district; a 12-year-old cigarette boy executed for doing the same in front of a Western medical clinic; two women shot after leaving an Ethiopian base at an old pasta factory; and a man killed for programming Ethiopian music into the occupiers' cell phones. And so the city shuts down in fear. Many of the shops around the national stadium have been shuttered, the local people complain. An Ethiopian base there has made business impossible. The shop owners were hit with death threats from both sides for selling -- or not selling -- snacks to the foreign troops. Meanwhile, the Ethiopians can't even change their paychecks into local currency. A Somali money changer was killed as an example to others. The Ethiopians have resorted to stopping buses at gunpoint and forcing drivers to cough up their bundles of almost worthless Somali shillings. "I don't recognize my people anymore," said Hawa Abdi, who runs the displaced people's camp outside of Mogadishu that was attacked by hungry troops. "I feel Somalia is lost. There is no Somalia. It is just a name." Trained in Ukraine as a nurse, Abdi, a Mogadishu native, has managed her sprawling camp for 17 years. She squinted out over its sea of huts, domed like Native American wickiups but fabricated from scraps of trash. Even the trash looked old, tired. The camp is growing. Refugees from Mogadishu are arriving at the rate of 50 or 60 a day. Some kept on walking, nobody knew where. Abdi put her hands gently on her head, as if her head hurt. "You can only stay frightened for so long," she finally said. "And I am really tired of it." Walking back to her office, she said she couldn't stay in Mogadishu anymore.

Looks like the USP-SSDF fight all over again.