Africa might as well translate as “the place that suffers.” Autocrats plunder their masses, some under the guise of free elections, others simply by seizing and clinging to power without letting go. Warlords recruiting children, slaughtering entire villages to make their point are perplexing and constant images. The education, respect for diversity and sophistication that seem to be a necessary ingredient for the successful growth of truly-representative democracy have a long way to go. In the northern, Islamic sector, the Arab Spring has long-since begun to fall.
Droughts and tribal or racial wars still seethe throughout the continent, and genocide is a recent memory in too many parts of this continent. The rich have a strong hold on the wealth of most of this land, and abysmal poverty still plagues vast segments everywhere. Battle lines often form around valuable resources, more often than not, new-found oil reserves. Water access also, particularly over the Nile, threatens even more violence.
Religious wars, generally pitting fundamentalist militant Islamists against Christians of varying sects, are exploding in the middle lands, countries bordering the Islamic north and the Christian or tribal south. Islamists such Boko Haram in Nigeria, al Shabab in Somalia, and Ansar Dine in Mali are pretty clear examples, but hardly an exhaustive list. Al Qaeda-linked, wanting the most severe form of Islamic government. Most people on earth don’t want war or violent indigenous struggles. Muslims and Christians alike. They want to be left alone looking to government to help them improve their lives, provide education and infrastructure, water access and protection for raiding mobs. Unfortunately, it is too often the government or those seeking to take over government that are those raiding mobs.
Kenya, a nation better known in the West for wondrous safaris to some of the best game parks on earth, friendly locals and incredible hospitality, shuddered under the 1998 U.S. embassy bombing and has been playing nasty games with Somali instability in the north. As the civil war raged in Somalia, as refugees flooded south into safer Kenya. To avoid this population shift, Kenya used its armed forces to dominate Jubaland, a buffer “security” zone, in southern Somalia, to provide a safe haven for those fleeing the murderous acts of al Shabab Islamists whose violence rages above.
Somalia deeply resents these incursions, and al Shabab militants glower with hatred as Kenya seemingly has taken sides in this conflict. “[T]he government of Somalia asked Kenyan peacekeeping troops to leave the country – saying Nairobi was pushing to establish its own leader in Jubaland, and saying that in May, Kenyan troops took sides in factional fighting inKismayo, the largest port in the area, that killed 65 Somalis and wounded another 155.” Christian Science Monitor, July 5th.
Nairobi, Kenya, Saturday, September 21st: As of this writing, 62 innocent people were killed (including 2 French, 2 Canadian) and approximately 175 wounded (including 4 Americans) as two waves – 10 to 15 or more – of well-trained al Shabab sharp-shooters, some with grenades most with assault weapons, invaded a multi-story upscale shopping Mall in Kenya’s capital. Bullets fired with pinpoint accuracy, hostages taken and being held. “Parents hurled their bodies over their children, people jumped into ventilation shafts to save themselves, and shoppers huddled behind the plastic mannequins of designer clothing stores as two squads of gunmen believed to be linked to a Somali terrorist group moved through the mall, shooting shoppers in the head. Hours later, the mall’s gleaming floors were smeared with blood as police officers dashed through the corpse-strewn corridors, trying to find the assailants.
“The mall, called Westgate, is a symbol of Kenya’s rising prosperity, an impressive five-story building where Kenyans can buy expensive cups of frozen yogurt and plates of sushi. On Saturdays, it is especially crowded, and American officials have long warned that Nairobi’s malls were ripe targets for terrorists, especially Westgate, because a cafe on the ground floor, right off the street, is owned by Israelis.” New York Times, September 21st.
All over the world, where violence explodes involving Muslims and “others,” the question of a global war of civilizations rears its ugly head. Has it really started? Are there multiple wars, one involving Sunnis (the vast majority and representing each of the named Islamist groups named above) and another involving the small minority of Shiites (Iran, Hezbollah, etc.)? Demanding cessation of U.S. drone strikes, Taliban suicide bombers executed an estimated 80 Christian worshipers, wounding over 120, as they decimated a church in Peshawar, Pakistan on September 22nd.
Can such extremists be stopped or contained, if indeed such a global war is continuing? And although it is one large drop in the bucket, isn’t an effective and working détente with Iran more important today than it has been in years? Maybe the connections are at less-than-the-Ayatollah-level, but you have to start somewhere. War, however, is bad news for those in the middle of the struggle… and even for those far away who are impacted by it.
I’m Peter Dekom, and while we must remain militarily strong, we need to be diplomatically stronger.
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