Just what is the Somalia Strategy?

A cardinal axiom of management is that an enterprise must have the correct strategy for its tactics to succeed. Tactics, the progeny is compelled by the genetic potential imperatives in the vigor of the father strategy. Bring all the brilliant tactics to bear, if the strategy is ill-defined, don’t be surprised with failure. The question of chicken and egg does not arise. And you just cannot turn a frog into a prince.

Mr. Museveni is said to have walked out of an AU meeting discussing Somalia. He was in a foul mood because his daimyo (Japanese shogun-era lord) benefactor was tight with his wallet since his economy was in the doldrums and is fighting close to three wars simultaneously. The spat about dough gives one a glimpse of the underlying Museveni motive beyond the noise of supposed peace-keeping mission by a dirt-poor nation of Uganda. Sometimes daredevil pugilists attempt to punch above their weight levels with the result that speaks for itself.

Considering the Somalian dynamics, a peace-keeping mission, which amounts to propping a cobbled-up fragile government for years to come, should have been outright rejected by the Ugandan people. But, in a dictatorship, this was not to be: Uganda went it alone with the support of little Burundi which essentially was currying favors from its flamboyant neighbor up North.

Months later, what do we have? Deaths in Somalia. Deaths here at home. And the president is supposedly boiling with anger. Let us see if he is going to be scientific (as according to him: not emotion but science is a prerequisite for war). He swore to pursue al-Shaabab to the end of the earths! Could the daimyo throw some more silver in his war bowl? Signals are being sent to him. Already a hostile diplomat changed his tune: Museveni is not a dictator before he was a dictator. !@$$^%^&#!! Does it make you dizzy? Is it a Japanese Zen koan or  some Chinese riddle?

If this exercise is about curbing terrorism, such a threat from Somalia to Uganda was not there before the ill-fated mission. In fact, I have a Somali acquaintance who often taunted me by lauding the greatness of Museveni. Now, his antics have become hostile and, not taking chances, I am in a war mode whenever our paths cross.

Let us say the president finds some banoti-banoti (as my cousin used to say), and goes on an al-Shaabab hunting trip, here are some warnings: Somalis are not the kinds of “biological substances” he decisively routed in Uganda. They are more evil than he, Museveni is, and Uganda will be just another “clan” to contend with and avenge against. And it won’t be pretty for years to come. Next year the next president should just pull our boys out of there the day after his inauguration.