Payback time [Updated]

I’m reading reports of our actions in Somalia and bouncing in my chair with joy;

A U.S. air strike hit targets in southern Somalia where Islamic militants were believed to be sheltering suspects in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies, Somali officials and witnesses said Tuesday. Many people were reported killed.

Monday’s attack was the first overt military action by the U.S. in Somalia since the 1990s and the legacy of a botched intervention — known as “Black Hawk Down” — that left 18 U.S. servicemen dead.

Helicopter gunships launched new attacks Tuesday near the scene of the U.S. air strike, although it was not clear if they were American or Ethiopian aircraft, and it was not known if there were any casualties.

But I suspect that Democrats (otherwise known as the usual suspects) will soon be comparing our actions in Somalia with Nixon’s “illegal war” in Cambodia and the attempt of that administration to widen the war in Southeast Asia in order to more effectively kill more of the enemy.

Flopping Aces is considering the attack a tribute to those 18 warriors killed in October 1993. I just think it’s tactical brilliance; get the little creatures all crammed up in a small space and drop a coupla thousands rounds of 20mm lead on their asses. They’ve terrorized and held hostage their own people long enough.

Some of the estimates I’ve seen this morning are 400 dead and I figure that’s a good start. Although I have a personal stake in massive payback, moreso, I’d love for the Somalian people to get some respite from their bloody past.

I’ve also noticed that the AP wire story that everyone seems to be using on the internet, although it mentions the “Blackhawk Down” incident, but none of the backstory like they normally would of a similar incident with a Republican administration. They don’t even pin the the year down, let alone under which President and the make-up of Congress at the time.

They don’t mention that the generals asked for US Bradleys in Somalia and got nothing but excuses from Clinton and Les Aspen, the Secretary of Defense. You’d think they’d want to point out the failures of politicians to support the troops they sent into combat, wouldn’t you?

Update 1-10-07: Captain’s Quarters  and Powerline are reporting that the air attack was successful. AP reports we’re into our third day of bombing the Islamist rebels.

The Washington Time’s Rowan Scarborough reports this is not the first use of the US military against Islamist targets in Somalia;

Senior defense sources say the AC-130 was not the first action in and around Somalia since the September 11, 2001, attacks and the subsequent placement of a U.S. military task force in Djibouti a few miles from the Somalia border. The sources said the task force has periodically launched special operations missions against militants, but they declined to give specifics of where and when.

Little Green Footballs reports the outrage from the Arab League in Egypt.

Jacob Laskin writes in FrontPage Magazine;

Encouragingly, the U.S. military is more than equal to the task. As documented by the journalist Robert Kaplan, lost amid the constant barrage of bad news from Iraq is that the U.S. military remains on unwearied offensive against al-Qaeda and its fellow travelers. In Africa especially the military has hunted down the terrorist group and trained local forces to carry on the fight. It has done all this, moreover, with little fanfare and even less recognition.

Category: Terror War