The U.S.'s Renewed Love Affair With Torturing Somalia

As I posted yesterday and you no doubt already heard elsewhere, we're back bombing Somalia, although the reasons why aren't any too clear (except perhaps to beef up the president's big "War on HumanityTerror" speech tonight).

Today, there's word we killed a whole bunch of civilians (some reports say 17-18, some say far more) whose only known transgression was fleeing other bombing by the U.S.

So please bear in mind that should the U.S. - through its blatant suspension of posse comitatus - decide to bomb your home, you will be viewed as a terrorist if you decide to exercise that silly privilege - not a right, tyvm - of self preservation. This, I glean, from U.S. military and White House statements that it was "regrettable" that "possible" civilians died but the target was too important to ignore. Note, however, we do not KNOW the targets we're after ARE Al Qaeda (see below).

But it also brings me to this post by Jeff Huber at My Left Wing - aptly entitled, "What Are We Doing In Somalia" - that sums up my complete revulsion of our Somalia attacks quite nicely:

I had several reactions to the Monday strike in Somalia by a AC-130 gunship against members of al-Qaeda.

My first thought was: yeah, that's the way you go after terrorists. Cultivate intelligence, isolate the target, and then call in special ops forces to prosecute it.

But as I read the accounts in the Washington Post and the New York Times, one word jumped out at me.

The targets of this air strike were "suspected" al Qaeda members.