US Proxy War in Somalia Prone to Blowback

The United States is giving weapons and legitimacy to thugs and murderous warlords in Somalia, some with ties to al Qaeda and al Shabab. The US-sponsored African Union force, currently occupying large swaths of Mogadishu, has a membership more prone to blowback than perhaps any other group. US policy is supporting warlords to help build a central government in Somalia. But as the mayor of Mogadishu says “[The warlords] are not supporting the government, but they are waiting. It’s a time bomb: they are waiting, they want to weaken the government, and they are waiting any time that the government falls, so that each one will grab an area.”

Read Jeremy Scahill’s entire investigative report at The Nation. 

Author: John Glaser

John Glaser writes for Antiwar.com.