Somalia the Model

On December 24 last year I posted on the Ethiopian offensive against shariah-ruled Somalia, and have kept a keen eye on developments there since. Now that the events seem to have reached their conclusion, with Ethiopian prime minister Zenawi having declared the mission completed and the troops ready to withdraw (Jihad Watch, January 2, 2007), I write my summary on the affair.

I can think of no better summing up of my thoughts on it than the commentary on Genesis 6:9. On the words, “Noah was in his generations a man righteous and whole-hearted”, Rashi says, “There are among our rabbis who commend him[, saying]: then obviously if he had been in a generous of righteous men he would have been more righteous; and there are those who fault him[, saying]: according to his generation he was righteous, but if he had been in Abraham’s generation he would not have counted for anything”. Both views that Rashi brings up represent the two minds that I, and I suspect many other observers, are at regarding this affair. The first view is the relative view of Noah’s status, with expressed optimism, while the second view is the absolute view, with the thought that that generation could have done better.

I had posted that post with the relative view in my mind, the view of it against the sad backdrop of near-total dhimmitude everywhere: the USA’s entanglement in Iraq, and consequently the report of Baker’s Iraq Surrender Group; the ongoing appeasement of Islam in Europe; India’s reluctance to take matters into hand within its own borders and in its Muslim-occupied territories (Kashmir, Pakistan and Bangladesh); Thailand’s coup installing a Muslim prime minister in order to negotiate “peace” with the Muslim invaders in the south; and last but not least, the constant bungling of Ehud Olmert, the dhimmi prime minister of Israel, both in Lebanon last summer and now with his silence in the face of having one of Israel’s towns bombarded by rockets daily. Against such a backdrop, how can Ethiopia’s initiative fail to arouse cheers of optimism on our side?

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