Since 1991, Somalia has been in a constant state of Civil War and Anarchy. They have no government. Somalia has become infamous for vicious pirates and being a hotbed of terrorism. The United States attempted to carry out a humanitarian aid mission in Somalia from 1992-1995 which largely ended in failure with many dead American soldiers. The U.S pulled out in 1995, and the country continued to be in civil war and have no government. Years later in 2007, the United States returned to Somalia this time to carry out military airstrikes and drone strikes against terrorist training camps. The Alshabab has been the main military target of the United States since 2007 and the group is linked to the Al-Qaeda.
I’m going to discuss why this is not worth the time of the United States to be involved in this and why it hurts more than helps Somalia. The Al-Shabab group has never carried out a terrorist attack outside of Africa. The farthest the group has gone outside of Somalia is in Kenya! Al-Shabab is not a threat to Europe or the U.S mainland. When the U.S bombs Somalia each time, a lot of terrorists and civillians get killed along with infrastructure damage. Somalia is left in further ruin each time. These airstrikes have not brought an end to the Somali Civil War, and they don’t get any of the armed groups to lay down their arms. In fact all these airstrikes do is make Somalians hate the United States more, as well as other African people. The Somali piracy problem was largely solve by 2013, when the U.S operations largely crippled piracy networks and other countries have stepped up ocean security. So there is really no excuse for still doing military operations in Somalia.
Also, I want to say this. Since the United States put a travel ban in effect against Somalis immigrating to the United States, that has already taken care of the threat of Somali terrorists entering the United States. Problem Solved! Also, the United States seems to want to compete for influence and trade in Africa against the Chinese. The Chinese don’t carry out military operations in Africa. They don’t bomb Africa. African countries feel more comfortable doing business with China than the United States. The U.S has bombed Libya a few times in the past, bombed Sudan in 1998, and been bombing Somalia since 2007. China has not bombed Africa once. The U.S is just shooting itself in the foot if it wants to outcompete China in Africa.
Lastly I want to reiterate, nothing in Somalia is getting resolved by the U.S continually bombing it. I think Somalia is always going to be in Civil War and will probably never have a government again. The United States does not need to waste it’s time and money and this futile campaign. We don’t need to keep killing a bunch of African People. We need to improve our standing in Africa so we don’t look like their former European Colonial masters. Time to leave Somalia alone for good!
