"...Clinton announced that he was sending some 1,700 reinforcements, 104 additional armored vehicles, an aircraft carrier, and 3,600 offshore Marines. But as Vieira de Mello adjusted to life under siege in Sarajevo, Clinton changed his mind. On October 19 the president backtracked-again as the Reagan administration had done almost exactly a decade before-announcing that U.S. forces in Somalia would 'stand down.'"
-Samantha Power, Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World
Fast forward: 2008; Somalia in chaos, anarchy reigns after 17 years of lawlessness and societal breakdown. Complete devastation on the ground, famine looming, destabilizing an already unstable region of the world. If we could rewrite history, what would we change? More importantly, what would those who have made the decisive decisions of the past change? With this newfound knowledge, would the modern world be free from suffering and turmoil?
Would Clinton change his government's policy from one of sheer indifference, after years of creating and propping up the Siad Barre dictatorship, the corrupted leadership which led to the anarchy in Somalia then and now?
From this week's Economist:
"The UN reckons that 2.6m out of 8m Somalis need help to keep fed and sheltered; some 1m have fled from their homes. That figure could rise with the recent failure of crops and the death of animals from drought. Spiralling food costs and the diving value of the Somali shilling have made things worse. Families are dying of hunger in camps for the internally displaced on the main road south of Mogadishu."
