Bodies dragged through the streets
Well, I guess the Americans don't have to feel singled out anymore,
Somali insurgents have dragged the bodies of two dead Ethiopian soldiers through the streets of Mogadishu after a day of heavy battles.
Residents say hundreds of people trailed after them, pelting the corpses with stones, chanting "God is Great".
. . .
"They came here in their hundreds just after dawn and met stiff resistance from the insurgents, using rocket-propelled grenades and machine-guns," resident Seynab Sheikh told our reporter.
The clashes subsided only after the Ethiopians withdrew.
Which means the Ethiopians are having trouble even getting the tactical successes normally due a conventional force fighting insurgents.
If the situation with Eritrea opens another front for the Ethiopian army, I expect Ethiopia will abandon Somalia rather than fight on two fronts. (I'd say "sooner than expected", except that much like the US in Iraq, the Ethiopians thought they'd already be long gone by now, having handed the situation off to an African Union force that for some reason, can't seem to find countries willing to volunteer their troops to be targets.)
When the Ethiopians leave, the transitional government they've propped up either leaves with them or suffers the wrath and retribution of the Somali people who've been suffering under the occupation. And in all likelihood, the Union of Islamic Courts, or another group not unlike it, reasserts its control over the region, and this time with even less reason to like the US and its allies.
The Bush administration's record for progress is a gift that keeps on giving.
