“….when the Ethiopian military rolled in to Mogadishu and sent the Islamist fleeing last week, the bush administration kept a low profile, applauding the invasion and thanking its lucky stars that it was Ethiopia that launched it, not America.” Time, January 15,2007
“We have achieved no other nation able of. Now Somalia is a different state many thanks to our brave soldiers” PM Meles Zenawi on his one day visit to Mogadishu
Me as a citizen doesn’t have a clue why our soldiers fought this war. I don’t want to hide my admiration to those troops, as a military they have delivered what is expected of them but for what cause? I am no fun of extremism but I believe Somalia people have the right to solve their internal problem by themselves. I think it is time for our government to materialize the real motivation that lead to the invasion of this fragile state. As a government our leaders has to dig every means to fund our underprivileged economy but to invade other country to have the heart and mind of the World Bank is a gamble with a so so unpredictable consequence.
I completely agree with you, we can’t afford to fight a war in a foreign land, any war for that matter given our economic situation. I would say the war we fought in Somalia is a battle where the winner loses more.
WHO statistics shows that in Ethiopia 1 out of 6 children die before the age of five due to diseases that are preventable. We can see the situation this way, the bullet we fire to kill a Somali man could have saved the life of a child in Ethiopia had the money been allocated for the health sector rather than the war, as simple as that. Worse than this, war affected Somali children may get the attention of humanitarian agencies, but, our children whose budget for medics snatched and channeled to sponsor the war who will reach for them?
May God save Ethiopia.