Horn Heating Up 12/28/2006 02:36:18 pm by Dan Krohn

	This week the official Somalian government, backed by Ethiopian troops, launched a counteroffensive against militant Islamists to take back Somalia. The Islamists had previously taken over the capital and were imposing their version of orthodox Muslim law governance where they took hold. Al Qaeda has announced its support for the militant Islamists in Somalia. Islamists have announced an intent to creat an orthodox Muslim nation from Eritrea to Somalia, incorporating Ethiopia and Djibouti. Now, an Eritrean minister has publicly stated that the war is between the Somalian Islamists and the U.S. As stated before in this blog, the U.S. maintains an important base in Djibouti and the Horn of Africa controls vital shipping lanes. With Iraq dominating the news, the problems in this part of the world may well be under the radar. We can only hope not. However, with U.S. forces stretched thin by activities in Iraq and the yet to be subdued Afghanistan, one wonders just how much the U.S. can do in this area. Clearly the U.S. leadership must study the world with an eye to greater complexity than indicated by the simple us versus axis of evil approach. And in spite of American short term views and frequent elections, a bi-partisan effort is needed in foreign affairs to succeed against foes who plan and work on a much longer timeline. Indeed, problems in administering foregin affairs arising from the loss of bi-partisan effectiveness is, in this blogger's opinion, likely to be one of, if not the greatest of, the unfortunate legacies of the Rove/Delay era.

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Nuclear Non-Proliferation Again 12/04/2006 04:08:58 pm by Dan Krohn

	A quick update. Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the U.K., just announced that he would propose Britain's updating its nuclear missle submarine force. Sometime back, Blair had suggested Britain unilaterally proceed with nuclear disarmament (according to an Economist article). Now this has changed. This blogger suspects that nations with stable or declining populations of fighting age males will be hesistant to drop their nuclear arsenals - wary of conventional warfare against larger armies. Addtionally, as increasing numbers of previously non-nuclear nations acquire nuclear weapons capability (Iran, North Korea, and others), there is little incentive for any nation to voluntarily weaken its arsenal. Unfortunately, the more weapons of mass destruction are spread about the globe, the more likely it is that someone will use one.

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