Where there is the will there is a way

Backing up the point which I made yesterday today's New York Times is reporting that the forces of the legitimate Somali government have re-taken the capital city:

NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec. 28 — Just hours after Islamist fighters abandoned Mogadishu, the capital from which they ruled much of Somalia, thousands of troops of the transitional government marched into the city on Thursday in a stunning reversal of fortune.

The government soldiers and the Ethiopian infantrymen who have been backing them poured in from the outskirts, residents said. The only gunshots fired were long celebratory bursts into the air.

In a country with such a troubled recent history, including famine, anarchy, isolation and war, a potentially viable government has suddenly emerged.

In a matter of five days, the internationally recognized government, a fledging authority that had been so weak it was marooned in a provincial market town, captured the formidable capital and most of Somalia — with more than a little help from Ethiopia.

As I said yesterday, the Ethiopian government had the means to defeat the Islamofascists and the will to do so.

The American military in Iraq has vastly superior means to the Ethiopians, however we lack the will to use them. Our enemies, not just Islamists but bad guys the world over, think that we will ultimately be defeated because of our unwillingness to get our hands dirty.

If the president and congress want to win in Iraq then let them kick out the reporters, pardon every serviceman accused of a "war crime" who was just doing his job, like the Marines in Haditha, and tell the men on the ground over there to do what needs doing, that their government has their back.

Let the Democrats echo this message even more strongly than Mr. Bush and you will see the "insurgency" in Iraq melt away like a snowball in a Baghdad summer.

What you can do if you're willing

From The New York Times:

NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec. 27 — The Islamist forces who have controlled much of Somalia in recent months suddenly vanished from the streets of the capital, Mogadishu, residents said Wednesday night, just as thousands of rival troops massed 15 miles away.

In the past few days, Ethiopian-backed forces, with tacit approval from the United States, have unleashed tanks, helicopter gunships and jet fighters on the Islamists, decimating their military and paving the way for the internationally recognized transitional government of Somalia to assert control.

Even so, the Islamists, who have been regarded as a regional menace by Ethiopia and the United States, had repeatedly vowed to fight to the death for their religion and their land, making their disappearance that much more unexpected.

Want to know why the Ethiopians are having much less trouble in Somalia than the US is having in Iraq, even though the Ethiopian military is vastly less capable than the US military?

The answer is that the Islamofascists in Somalia do not doubt the resolve of the Ethiopians. The Ethiopian government does not have an equilivent of the American Democrat Party to invading it like a cancerous tumor sucking all the strength and vitality out of the nation.

Therefore the Ethiopians have the will do do what must be done. The militant Islamic forces know it and so they are running for the tall grass.

Now if American Democrats would only step up

From The Washington Post:

LONDON, Dec. 25 -- Ethiopian warplanes attacked the airport in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, on Monday in another major escalation of fighting between the Ethiopian-backed Somali government and the Islamic Courts movement that in recent months has taken over much of the country.

Who knew that Ethiopia had warplanes? I guess that the Soviets were giving away hardware to anyone who would at least pretend to play on their team. This is a testimony to how robust that old Russian stuff is that it can still fly with maintenance that must give the word minimal a new meaning.

Still and all this is a good thing. If you want to know what the "Islamic Courts" movement is all about just think Taliban.

Also, notice that were there is a trouble spot with people suffering and rivers of blood being spilled you find Islam at the root of it.