SOMALIA REVISITED

[mburbank]

My point is that it is a muddy, complicated, ugly situation. I don't think there are any speciffic groups to 'root out' or 'perpetrators' to punish. I think there is a large, angry, dangerous, barbaric, undifferentiated mob. I'm not even at the moment going so far as thinking about the reasons.

I'm pointing out a quagmire.

It's all very well to say (as compared to Somalia) 'well, this time, we won't run, we'll finish the job."

What exactly IS the job? When would you know it was 'finished'? And when it' a whole city that hates you enough to do what people their did and celebrate what can you possibly do? We've already committed ourselves publicly to a 'strong response.' Who are we going to respond to?

I appreciatte the 'however we got there, we're there now, and we have to stay until the job is done' argument, I honestly do, but I think somebody needs to start painting a realistic picture of what the 'job' is and some way of getting there.

Because at least as far as Fallujah goes, I don't see options outside of 'destroying the village in order to save it.'