The appearance of taking sides

Look, Sunni insurgents are the main threat to the "Unity government" in Iraq. And for all I know al Qaeda does have operatives in Somalia.

But it could certainly be perceived that the U.S. is taking sides in two civil wars. A major operation in a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad, without simultaneously engaging the Moqtada al Sadr's ragtag army is not going to placate Sunni's fear that the Iraqi government means to crush them with American help.

And using American gunships to blast away at Islamic leaders fleeing the warlords at the behest of the Somali "transitional president (and who elected him, anyway?)" is certainly an indication that we are actively participating in that civil war, as well.

News of the air strikes set off fresh waves of anti-American anger in Mogadishu, the battle-scarred seaside capital of the country, which until recently was controlled by the Islamist forces.

“They’re just trying to get revenge for what we did to them in 1993,” said Deeq Salad Mursel, a taxi driver, referring to the infamous “Black Hawk Down” episode, when 18 American soldiers were killed by Somali gunmen.

The country’s transitional president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, said today that he had given American forces permission on Sunday to carry out the strikes, according to news agencies.

The United States has twice involved itself in Somalia in recent years, and neither episode ended well.

President Clinton abruptly ended a large American-led aid mission in the 1990s after the 18 soldiers were killed, leaving Somalia spiraling into chaos and bloodshed, conditions that still prevail in much of the country. Last summer, American efforts to finance a band of Somali warlords as a counterweight against a growing Islamist movement backfired when many Somalis learned of the hidden American hand and threw their support behind the Islamists.

We're in it up to our necks and we keep on digging.