Putting Some Stick About

Has anyone else noticed a distinct sense of pique wafting from the BBC’s coverage of the fact that the Ethiopians are kicking the crickey out of the Islamics in Somalia?

Government troops in Somalia have marched into parts of Mogadishu, hours after Islamist forces abandoned the capital they had held for six months.

Some residents cheered the troops, but others feared a return to lawlessness.

Earlier, as the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) withdrew its fighters, Somalia's clan militias began reasserting their presence - raising fears of a return to the clan warfare which racked the city for years before the Islamists brought a measure of security.

Interesting, though, when one considers this:

Transitional government spokesperson Abdirahman Dinari told the BBC the majority of the forces poised to retake Mogadishu were Somali, not Ethiopian.

Seems the Somalis, most of whom are Islamic, aren’t so enamoured of the Union of Islamic Courts themselves. Hasn’t stopped the BBC World Service (over night) from asking the question, over and over and over again: do the people support the removal of the UIC?

And maybe this is why. . .

In Ethiopia, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said: "Our mission in Somalia is very very limited... we are not there to reconstruct Somalia economically, politically or otherwise. We are there to remove the threat of the Islamic Courts militia on Somalia and Ethiopia."

Someone’s got the right idea.

Of course, the Arabs are going batshit. Where would we be, though, without this next gentle reminder of how much harm the West’s surrender monkeys have done. . .

Senior UIC official Omar Idris told the BBC: "We know what happened in Iraq... I think this is very, very early to say that the Islamic Court forces were defeated."

Meanwhile, a UIC delegation has been in Nairobi, meeting Kenyan officials and Western diplomats.

Sorry - no prizes as to which Western diplomats the Islamonuts will be meeting with.

The African Union has called for Ethiopian forces to leave Somalia. But the UN Security Council has failed to agree on a statement calling for the withdrawal of all foreign forces.

Which is code for serious bickering over whether or not to include the foreign Islamic fighters, I’m absolutely sure. . .