Ultimately Museveni is to Blame

 • Somalis. People times ten. From grief to laughter, from love to hate Somalis seem turbo-charged. Hyper-driven with life force. Dowden, ‘09

•The trouble with the United Nations is that if we ask them for help, they will send us some African who has already destroyed his own country and will come and mess up ours too.
A Somalia Minister of Tourism & Wildlife
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The blame game is quintessentially Musvenian: All his failures are the faults of his “enemies” and detractors. Whereas his stances are cowardly, evasive and tacky attempts to duck realities, we indulge in the blame game for cause: his recklessly bringing the curse of Somalia to our doorstep.

The dismembered state of Somalia is a morass that had the so-called only Super Power scrambling out of there on the double with bruises to its ego. The ferocious Somalis had shot down two Black Hawk helicopters in which eighteen young Americans died horribly. Reuters showed us all how one dead American was dragged through the streets of Mogadishu. These events did not play well at home. And the immediate casualty might have been 1994 Rwanda in which the UN was shy in any more African “misadventures.” (Dowden, 09) “Leave African solutions to Africans” was the new wisdom.

Somalis are a hardy lot, weaned by a landscape that is “craggy, hard, arid, a vast griddle, scoured and scorched daily by the sun for thousands of years.” Somalis are Cushitic speakers with relatives in Ethiopia—a language as harsh as their nature. They don’t regard themselves as Africans. In fact, in pre-colonial times they raided what is now Northern Kenya and took away African slaves. When these slaves were freed by the coming of European rule they were never incorporated into the Somali clan networks.

Imagine simmering of inter-clan hostilities among some Uganda tribes; multiply that by one hundred, and you get a sense of the spirit of Somalia. Siad Barre tried to ban clans and family groupings, and even any mentioning of them. But, like many African Big Kahunas, his Marehan clan was top dog. As soon as he was chased out of town the chess game unraveled: Hargersia, capital of the north was in rubbles. So was Mogadishu. Clan fiefdoms sprouted overnight.

And this is the milieu in which Museveni, in hubris high, having routed some confused and disorganized tribes in Uganda, thought he would be a “peace-keeper.” Restless because there were no more armed challenges at home and because of a necessary desire to win kudos from Massa as insurance, he couldn’t help himself. To the wind went the old masters’ maxim of a true warrior: know thyself, know thy enemy, and know your AO (Area of Operation) and the rest will only be details against one as against a thousand. And another 76 innocent Ugandans perished because of the reckless decision of one man. When will this stop? Now, if he is wise, he should count his losses and, with his tail between his legs, leave Somalia to Somalis. Ugandans will appreciate it with their lives.