A Detour to Africa

Although I know these kinds of posts are the least popular on here, I feel this topic is just not getting enough attention.

In the last few weeks some big events have taken place in Somalia. Ethiopian troops, really the only reason the transitional government was able to hold onto any semblance of "power" at all, have withdrawn. The president of the transitional government has also resigned, and his successor has not been named by paliament. This leaves an incredibly large vacuum in this desperate African nation, not only in the transitional government itself, but in the country as a whole. Already the previously expulsed Islamic fighers have retaken the country, and the areas they don't control are ruled by warlords. According to this article:

The government, with its 10,000 strong army and 3,500 African Union AMISOM peacekeepers, controls little more than a few blocks in the capital, Mogadishu. The election is being held in Djibouti because even the provisional seat of parliament in Baidoa fell to Islamists several days ago.

The fact that the parliament can't even sit in its own city is pretty telling.

We only hear about Somalia primarily when the pirates sitting off of the coast of the Horn of Africa board a large foreign ship of some sort. And, of course, piracy is no laughing matter. The piracy off of the coast of Somalia, however, is the symptom of a much larger disease. Some order needs to be established in this country and soon, otherwise Iraq and Afghanistan are going to be fond memories compared to the crisis that emerges there.