OPINION: “How to meet the Somalia challenge”
John K. Cooley of the Christian Science Monitor newspaper writes:
On the map of northeast Africa, Somalia sprawls along the coast with the rough shape of a truncated sea-horse. It’s a torrid, dried-out, postcolonial land of passionate people - poets, pirates, and would-be prophets. It was the delight of European adventure writers and is the despair of American politicians and diplomats eager to implant Western democracy.
Mr. Cooley concluded by saying:
Meeting the Somali challenge should concentrate on control of the incessant arms traffic. It should consider calling in African Union or UN forces to protect aid to hungry Somalis, and lending political support to the transitional regime to transform it into a unified and strong federal system. This might reduce clan politics and encourage constructive action by neighboring African and Arab states to bring about peaceful change.