re: "If Somaliland is an "Island of Stability" why don't we recognise it? "

Gawain Towler at England Expects asks some solid questions.

Money quote(s):

"(I)t is one of the "Islands of stability and order" in the area. So why on earth is he celebrating the Independence of Southern Sudan, which does not fulfil;l; the criteria set by the African Union for sovereign state status (the pre colonial borders) and failing to do so for Somaliland?

Britain should take the lead, if we accept, as we do the remarkable and peaceful existence of Somaliland over the past 20 years, why on earth do we not go the extra mile to support their accession to the Commonwealth. After all as a former British protectorate they have more right to be there than Mozambique or Rwanda?"

Pay no attention to "international law." It functions, like road signs in the Third World, more as decoration and, perhaps, guidelines, than anything binding on sovereign states. It binds no one, except when someone wants to be bound.

(Or to have an excuse for inaction.)

Not being an "Africa hand" in anything but the most broad (and mostly academic) senses, I can't explain why Somaliland gets the cold shoulder from the international community.

NYP - HANG 'EM HIGH!

The reality-based Ralph Peters, had a good article at the New York Post the other day.

Money quote(s):

"Fake states, such as Somalia, Afghanistan or even Pakistan, may be the most vexing strategic problem of our time - even more challenging than Islamist terrorism. Throughout Africa and the greater Middle East and on to Southeast Asia, European imperialists drew boundaries in cynical ignorance."

"Deprived of heavy weapons by the Clinton-era Pentagon, our military nonetheless shattered the warlords' hold on Mogadishu, the pretend-capital of the pretend-state. Instantly, Bill Clinton, perhaps our most cowardly president, took fright and ran away, humiliating our military and encouraging al Qaeda to believe that the US had lost its will.

The clan wars that followed "Black Hawk Down" might be called "medieval," except that there was no chivalry involved and the weapons were deadlier. The country splintered into its organic parts. In the far north, the region known as Somaliland self-organized and sought independence from the badlands in the south.

But the "international community," led by our bumptious State Department, insists that every border in the world today has been in place since the Paleolithic Era and can never change. We told the people of Somaliland, who were struggling to live decent lives, that they had to remain a part of the lawless state we all pretend exists.

Pretty much the same thing happened in Puntland, another northern territory. The locals wanted to break free of the warring clans and terrorists to the south. We told them they "belong" to Somalia.

This isn't strategy. It's deadly moral sloth."

&

"We can't fix Somalia. But we could help ourselves by getting over our fantasy that it's a "sovereign state." We can fix the pirate problem: By sinking pirate vessels, hanging pirates (in accordance with the traditional laws of the sea), striking their bases and sinking every vessel in their harbors."