Is Somalia The New Afghanistan?

On the streets of Mogadishu with a heavily armed militant
Photograph: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad

From Times Online:

The wartorn nation is acting as a dangerous new magnet for terror.

Loading ammunition into the magazine of his AK-47 assault rifle, the young suicide bomber looked straight into the camera. “Jihad is real,” he said. “There’s no way you can understand the sweetness of jihad until you come to jihad.”

His accomplice joined in, his face hidden by a scarf. “How dare you sit at home and look on the TV and see Muslims getting killed ... Those who are in Europe and America, get out of those countries,” he ordered.

Moments later a column of black smoke appeared as a battered Toyota truck exploded.

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My Comment: Somalia is not the "New Afghanistan" .... yet.

There are a few similarities. Somalia is a failed state with a strong Islamic presence. There is a culture of violence and corruption, as well as a dysfunctional central government. Poverty and the impact of outside resources .... from aid agencies or terror groups are always welcomed. Young men .... with no work .... gravitate to terror and/or Islamic groups just to survive.

The differences are many. There is no large foreign Intelligence organization like the Pakistani ISI that supports the various Islamic groups in Somalia as the ISI supports the Taliban in Afghanistan. The geography of the land is not ideal to run an insurgency campaign. As an insurgent, I would take the mountains and lush valleys of Afghanistan over the flat deserts of Somalia any day.