Oh goody, we're funding more war

[flspots]

take a flat broke country whose military is spread thin and tired to boot, to be "peacekeepers" in a region that is a perpetual political, humanitarian, and economic mess. Who deemed the US the world's police force anyway? Oh, wait I can answer my own question: the US did in a pathetic attempt to win friends and influence people. It isn't working folks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/17/wo...html?ref=world
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also announced that the United States expected to persuade the Security Council to authorize a United Nations peacekeeping force in Somalia before the end of the month.

“While the conditions may not be auspicious for peacekeeping, they will be less auspicious if chaos reigns in Somalia, and we have to turn at some point to peacemaking,” Ms. Rice said.

Critics called the piracy resolution and the peacekeeping proposal ill considered, last-minute Bush administration initiatives.

“The Security Council continuously throws ill-defined peacekeeping operations at fundamentally political problems,” said John Prendergast of the Enough Project, an antigenocide campaign, who is a former Clinton administration official on Africa.

A peacekeeping force would just serve as a rallying point for Islamic insurgents battling the transitional government, Mr. Prendergast said. He and others suggested that a pronounced effort to shore up internal political negotiations in Somalia would be a better alternative to peacekeepers. Ms. Rice and other ministers also talked of the need to bolster internal peace talks.

(this is just pieces parts of the whole piece BTW; I've reduced news to mcnuggets! )

[Julester]

Boy what a hole you must live in. So you really don't think that we need to be multi-pronged in our approach to deal with extremists in Somalia....piracy etc. I mean it all falls in line with economics. If they are seizing the goods and terrorizing the commerce...I think the world in general should be concerned and step up to confront it. We all know how wussie the other countries are....but I firmly believe in leading by example and with a firm hand. If you turn the other cheek it will continue and only get worse.

Now utilizing the UN is a freaking joke and a half and we all know it will be up to use to handle it. But maybe NATO route would be better.

[flspots]

NATO definately the way to go, which I do agree w/even from my "little hole." I do understand global economics a smidge but I also understand that when it comes to taking on issues in other countries we get little to no financial or military support from our allies (what few we have left that is). This piracy is nothing new, and it was the media that brought it to our attention, so why now? Why wasn't it nipped in the bud years ago? --"The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) maintains statistics regarding pirate attacks dating back to 1995...Somilia attacks since 1985" Wiki. Is it again the media making much ado about nothing because their incessant bailout/recession/Obama stories are beginning to fall on deaf ears? The items on the ships typically have little to do w/the global economy, mostly goods going between the countries in that region. An oil tanker is what brought this to our attention, it wasn't the arms being shipped between Ukraine and Kenya, the luxury yachts, or the one when the pirates simply wanted to learn how to handle a ship so they took the manuals.
I just don't see how now is a good time to get into another potential mess.

[wintak]

flspots..you crack me up! I had no idea that pirates still EXISTED until the media brought the oil tanker thing to our attention. But you're right..we don't hear about the other things they pirate!

Amy