War In Somalia Research Paper

Having the opportunity to live in America, we are not commonly exposed to the overwhelming effects of anarchy; however our United States government is known for their involvement in aiding countries experiencing disorder. For more than two decades, the country Somalia dwelled in the ruins of its own nation after the collapse of its civilization. It was considered the world’s most failed state. Recently, as reported in the article, “US recognizes Somalia government after two decades of anarchy” by Mike Pflanz, the United States government began assisting Somalia to rise from the ashes of turmoil and back on their feet. The Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud stresses that “Somalia is emerging from a very long, difficult period and now moving away from the chaos, instability, extremism, piracy, to an era of peaceful and development.” The article also notes the conflicts against Islamic extremists and pirates, who took advantage of the unrest in the country. This relates with the theme

It is worth noting that Somalis are a mostly homogenous population. Specifically, they share a common language, religion (mostly Sunni Muslim, minority Shi'i) and a common historical identity. The main source of internal contention has always been disputes between the four main clan-families; the Dir, Darod, Isaaq, and Hawiye clans.(Jennifer De MaioTITLE:Managing Civil Wars: An Evaluation of Conflict-prevention Strategies in Africa ) However at this point in history, the Somali people, longing to break out from imperial rule, unified briefly under the Salihiyah tariqa, an orthodox muslim brotherhood led by Mahammad Abdille Hasan. The so-called, Dervish rebellion targeted the British and Egyptian

Somalia gained its independence from British control in 1960, where the British relinquished control and gave Somalia to the United Nations. Somalia was governed by civilians until 1969; after which the military rebellion by General Muhammed Siad Barre took place. General Muhammed

In the 1980’s and 1990’s violence in Somalia was getting worse as the days went by. This violence allowed warlords from the regions of Somalia and, in turn, go to war with one another. Images of the war showing starving children called for a response from the United States. The United States government sent supplies of food to the needy. However, these warlords got to the food trucks first. This resulted in President George H.W. Bush sending in troops to make sure that the supply lines could reach these desperate people in need of our help. As violence arose in Somalia United States citizens began to question whether or not it was our place to be there.

Then, United Somalia Congress divide into multiple clans which escalate the turmoil through inter-clan warfare. Such warfare destroyed the economy, and left hundreds of thousands of Somalians to perish of starvation.

The deployment of United States Special Forces to Somalia to apprehend General Aidid was in the interest of the United States, if Nuechterlein's outline of national security interest was anything to go by. Somali had gone through difficult times and there was need to restore normalcy in this Horn of Africa's state. Restoring normalcy would have ensured that stability returned. Moreover, this would have ensured that the instability that had been realized here never spilled over into other Eastern Africa states. Had the United States Special Forces succeeded in apprehending General Aidid, a democratically elected government would have been instituted. This government would have prioritized democratic governance principles that conform to United States Army War College's "Favorable World Order category" (Nuechterlein, 1985). Yes, it was difficult to establish Jeffersonian democracy in Somalia bearing in mind that Somalia was a tribal nation; however, it was something worth giving a short. This could only be made possible by chopping off the head of Aidid's organization and ultimately taking Aidid out of the streets. Under the leadership of Aidid, the United Nations lost at least 24 soldiers of Pakistani origin many of whom were skinned (Bowden, 1997).

The United Nations began to send food and supplies, via peacekeepers, to the people of Somalia. These UN workers would get shot at, and their supplies taken.

With the absence of Mohamed Siad Barre, the country had no proper government to run it. Faction groups started forming in Somalia to take control. In 1992, there was killing and starvation in the south of Somalia (Global Security 1). The U.N. sends peacekeeping operations into Somalia. In addition, the United States started sending troops into Somalia. In 1994, there was too much casualties in Somalia, so the U.S. soldiers withdrew from Somalia with the problems still unsolved (Phil Stewart 1). Fishermen started taking advantage of the bad condition Somalia is in and started raiding different fishing ports. The Somalians started to fight back. The Somalians began to raid and became pirates. Some observers say that the Somalians pirates are usually poor folks trying to get their fortune back (Ishaan Tharoor

Involvement of the United Stated in the eastern African country of Somalia in the early 1990s began as humanitarian aid and relief. Operation Provide Relief commenced in August of 1992 to aid United Nations forces in getting food and supplies to the Somali Civilians. As the situation in Somalia escalated, it became clear that more direct involvement would be necessary. Thus, Operation Restore Hope began in December, 1992. Once the situation had stabilized sufficiently, the US relinquished command back to the UN. Soon after, the situation degraded once again leading to the deployment of Task Force Ranger and resulting in the battle that would later become known as “Black Hawk Down”.

By November of 1992, conditions were getting worse instead of better. Food was still being stolen and sold off to clan leaders while aid workers were threatened and attacked. Americans were stunned at the lawlessness and starvation. Thousands of troops were ordered into Somalia to assist in the aid by President George H. Bush. Now food was getting to the people that it was intended for but distrust for the American soldiers was growing after they often violated Somalis privacy by bursting into their homes and confiscating the weapons that was the Somalis only defense against the opposing clans.6 In March of 1993 the U.S. withdrew most of its troops leaving the security of the people to the UN. By this time anger was growing towards the outsiders and the UN took most of the fallout for that by being attacked regularly. Hostility grew even more when the UN announced that the clan led by Aidid was the one responsible for the lawlessness in Somalia.7 When the UN took sides against the most powerful warlord in Somalia, the attacks against the aid workers was stepped up. 24 Pakistani peace keepers were killed

The United States had very few foreign interests in Somalia when they sent in their peacekeeping troops. The goal was to maintain the peace between the two warring tribes, and assist in the rehabilitation of the population. Clinton assessed the situation in Rwanda in comparison to the disaster in Somalia, and made the decision not to interfere. By doing so, he was able to ensure US resources were not used up in a pointless peacekeeping effort, and he was able to prevent the deaths or injuries of any peacekeeping soldiers. In addition, the concept

In August of 1992, President George Bush Sr. sent US soldiers into Somalia to provide humanitarian relief to those Somalis suffering from starvation. The major problems in Somalia started when President Mohammed Siad Barre was overthrown by a coalition of opposing clans. Although there were several opposing groups, the prominent one was led by Mohammed Farah Aidid. Following the overthrow of Barre, a massive power struggle ensued. These small scale civil wars led to the destruction of the agriculture in Somalia, which in turn led to the deprivation of food in large parts of the country. When the international community heard of this, large quantities of food were sent to ease Somali suffering. However, clan leaders like Aidid routinely

By 1975 the UF came to be so strongly controlled, organized and equipped by Mogadishu, that it was considered “an arm of the Somali army” (Gilkes 1994b:722). In January 1976, the movement was split for logistical and propaganda reasons into the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF) and the Abo-Somali Liberation Front (ASLF) (Compagnon 1995:378). Aiming to keep militancy on either side of the Somali-Ethiopian border at bay, Barre not only restricted the WSLF’s activities (Gilkes 1994b:722), but even avoided mentioning their existence to the Somali population (Markakis 1987:227; Lockyer 2006:5).

Somalia, a country that has been in turmoil and political instability during the past decade. Somalia, like other countries in Africa, was colonized by European nations during the late 1800s. Britain became concerned with keeping the route to India open for trade through the Suez Canal, which opened in 1869. In the beginning of the 20th century, British control was being challenged by native uprisings. In 1910, the British abandoned Somalia and withdrew to the coastal areas. Italy seized the opportunity to extend its control and took over many of the regions that Britain had abandoned. In the aftermath of WWII, Somalia was given to the United Nations and for a decade, it was a UN territory under Italian administration until 1960 when Somalia was granted independence. It was peaceful in the beginning but soon erupted into a violent internal conflict. In 1969, Somalia's second

Somalia was devastated by drought and famine in 1991 that endangered the lives of 1.5 million Somalis. In 1992, there was an intervention by the United Nations in Somalia to provide humanitarian assistance (UNOSOM I). The United Nations Operations in Somalia (UNOSOM I) had well intentioned goals in providing help to a region in crisis (International Troops Occupy Somalia, 1999). The insecurity in the region and he disputes among the clans hindered the humanitarian mission. Leif (2006) explains the problems in the mission: “The United Nations 8(UN) and other international aid organizations were prevented in achieving famine relief by the long history of clan violence within the nation”. The mission would continually have these issues because;