Is Clinton to blame in some degree for the Somali Pirates.

[Bandit]

He pulled the USA out of Somalia and allowed the country to do just what people say will happen in Iraq if we pull out. If we still had US troops in Somalia and had established a real Government there would these Pirate attacks be happening? Clinton did not take us into Somalia and brought our troops home shortly after taking office. Was that the correct decision or just the expedient one at the time?

[saltpoint]

1. No.

[Bandit]

4. No..Clinton has no blame or no, the decision to pull out was not correct?

Should we have allowed Somalia to degenrate into the mess it is today?

[saltpoint]

5. The citizens of Key West used to pirate every boat that floated by.

Whose fault was that? Clinton's? Andrew Jackson's? Cleopatra's?

Greed predates the United States, and U.S. presidents, and certainly Bill Clinton.

So does the impulse to control a riverway or ocean coast.

No, I do not believe Bill Clinton is to blame, in part or in full, for "the Somali pirates."

[msongs]

2. had bleu cheese fallen from the sky last night we'd all have salad dressing nt

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

3. No, he's not

[sandnsea]

6. No. I think Carter is to blame

Or maybe LBJ or Kennedy.

Certainly not the Republican Presidents who have been primarily in charge since 1968. Not them. No way.

[Renew Deal]

7. I blame the Ottoman Empire

[donheld]

16. Well you should be blaming

Genghis Khan

[NJmaverick]

8. The nation was a mess before Bush put our troops in harm's way

and it was a mess after Pres Clinton got them out of harm's way. In the end Bandit, it's very important that you understand the limit's of military power. It's a mistaken belief that our military power has no limits, that helped contribute to messes like Somolia, Lebanon, Iraq and Vietnam. The military is good at performing certain defined missions. Invading or occupying hostile nations, on the other hand, is not something that the military can do well. The only times that works if you first kill massive amounts of their civilian and military population and shatter their infracture, like they did in WW 2. Even then those were functional high level societies. You can see in Afghanistan, that if the society is primative enough no amount of damage or killing can get them to submit.

[JJ]

9. No, Monica is responsible.

She made Bill pull out.

[Ikonoklast]

10. I blame Bob Dylan.

He didn't fix the problem of feudal warlords plying their trade in Somalia, either.

:eyes:

[mitchum]

11. I blame Johnny Depp

[Individualist]

20. Sacrilege!

May the curses of Captain Sparrow be upon you!

[stillcool]

12. yeah right...

Somalia: Another CIA-Backed Coup Blows Up
by Mike Whitney
http://aljazeera.com/news/articles/42/Somalia_Another_CIAbacked_coup_blows_up.html

Up until a month ago, no one in the Bush administration showed the least bit of interest in the incidents of piracy off the coast of Somalia. Now that's all changed and there's talk of sending in the Navy to patrol the waters off the Horn of Africa and clean up the pirates hideouts. Why the sudden about-face? Could it have something to do with the fact that the Ethiopian army is planning to withdrawal all of its troops from Mogadishu by the end of the year, thus, ending the failed two year US-backed occupation of Somalia?
The United States has lost the ground war in Somalia, but that doesn't mean its geopolitical objectives have changed one iota. The US intends to stay in the region for years to come and use its naval power to control the critical shipping lanes from the Gulf of Aden. The growing strength of the Somali national resistance is a set-back, but it doesn't change the basic game-plan. The pirates are actually a blessing in disguise. They provide an excuse for the administration to beef up it's military presence and put down roots. Every crisis is an opportunity.


America's interests in Somalia:
Four major U.S. oil companies are sitting on a prospective fortune in exclusive concessions
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/North_Africa/Somalia_US_OilCorp_Fortune.html

The Long and Hidden History of the U.S in Somalia
by Stephen Zunes
AlterNet, January 21, 2002
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/North_Africa/Hx_US_Somalia.html


Somalia: Hidden Catastrophe, Hidden Agenda
by Media Lens
www.dissidentvoice.org/, May 14th, 2008
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/North_Africa/Somalia_Hidden_Agenda.html


More Blood For Oil
by Carl Bloise
www.zmag.org, January 16, 2007
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Africa/MoreBloodOil_Somalia.html

[jpak]

13. No - Poppy Bush put troops into Somalia as a parting gift to Clinton

and after the Blackhawk Down incident, Republicans called for Clinton's head if he did not withdraw those forces.

Either way, the GOP is responsible of the mess in Somalia.

[bridgit]

14. This Day in History 1992: Bush orders U.S. troops to Somalia

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=7101

[rucky]

15. If he had only used ninjas instead of rangers

[Heidi]

18. Ninjas with cloaking ability.

That'd be the way to go.

[Heidi]

17. Maybe we should have troops and military installations EVERYWHERE!!!!

Oh, wait. We pretty much do.

[sarge43]

If memory serves, we had our heads handed to us.

Somalia would have been another flies conquering the fly paper.

We really have to put to rest the chimera that we can impose our will on any third world nation du jour because we have to pay in lives when we do.

Since the Korean War roughly 100,000 Americans have been killed in war; 200,000 have been wounded. (That's Purple Heart wounds. God knows how many more suffered from Agent Orange, depleted uranium poisoning, post trauma and all the other horrors the gov't won't 'fess up to.) That's a lot of work, hopes, dreams and, yes, children we lost and what do we have to show for that loss, that robbery.

I put in 21 years in the service; I'm no pacifist. But I am sick onto death of mourning for my brothers and sisters and children and grandchildren in arms and not having the minimum comfort that their deaths and pain made a difference.

War isn't a video game where you can hit the ESC button when you screw up. It's as real as a bleeding arm stump, an empty eye socket, a melted face, a shattered chest, a nightmare that never, ever goes away.

[Heidi]

19. I'm gonna have to blame John Mayer for this one. He has the ship, the equipment

and the unquestionable diplomacy to defuse any and all piracy, both foreign and domestic.

http://www.mayercraftcarrier.com/

[lunatica]

21. Actually it all goes back to Cain killing Abel

[gulliver]

22. I blame Johnny Depp and Hollywood

They glamorized piracy. These Somali kids are just imitating what they see on the movie screen.

[sundog]

23. ugh

:eyes: