Clinton's Failure in Somalia Now Complete

The lack of resolve shown by former President Bill Clinton in Somalia after the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993 has finally paid off...for the Islamofascists:

We will fight and die for Somalia and Islam," said Sheikh Mohamoud Sheik Ibrahim, a senior cleric in the coalition of Sharia courts accused by the US and the alliance of harbouring terrorists.

"We will die for the sake of Allah and we will emerge victorious in our war against the US proxies here," he said. "We will never be ruled by US-paid mercenaries."

He dismissed Bush as a modern-day "Nazi" and "pharaoh", as men, women and children clad in traditional Islamic dress waved placards reading "Down with United States" and "No infidels in Mogadishu".

Story here.

The implications are obvious; leaving Somalia as we did in 1994 has all but guaranteed yet another platform for freedom-hating terrorists to operate with impunity. It would have been much less costly in lives and resources to have stabilized Somalia when we first had the chance.

Here's a short piece putting Clinton's failed Somalia policy in context:

Most of the American troops were out of Somalia by March 25, 1994. A few hundred Marines remained offshore to assist with any noncombatant evacuation mission that might occur regarding the 1,000-plus U.S. civilians and military advisers remaining as part of the U.S. liaison mission. All U.S. personnel were finally withdrawn by March 1995.
The Battle of Mogadishu led to a profound shift in American foreign policy, as American politicians became increasingly reluctant to use military intervention in Third World conflicts, failing to assist in the halt of the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, and affected America's actions in the Balkans during the later half of the 1990's. President Clinton preferred to use the "air power alone" tactic and hesitated to use U.S. ground troops in fighting Serbian military and para-military ground forces in Bosnia in 1995 and in Kosovo in 1999, out of fear of losing American soldiers in combat, as well as fear of repeating what happened in Mogadishu in 1993.

Source.