"Djibouti's main economic asset is its strategic location.

I know it’s scary isn’t it. The Surge Theory.

With the Islamic Courts smashed, the most organized and dedicated fighting force in the country is gone. But not completely, most members of the Islamic courts are still around, and will revive the organization in the next few months. They will be opposed by a stronger Transitional Government.

So why control the horn of Africa?

Somalia. Now, I know they don't have oil or anything like that, but let's face it: this is a classic case of how Bush's war has sowed the seeds of future conflict, all because our leaders are too trapped in their own mythology about "Islamofascism." There was a chance for diplomacy and international aid to quell the Islamacist rise to power, and we blew it. Just as we're failing to properly understand what the actual Islamacist threat really is, around the globe, challenging the old orders of corrupt dictators and Western puppet governments. Think on what it means, as the article points out, how the Islamacists are more popular than the once-powerful warlords, and how similar power shifts are occuring in Muslim nations the globe over. By losing in Iraq, Bush has taught the fundamentalists an important lesson: the West can't stop them. Thanks, Chimpy.

I put this one under "race matters" because our fine, fine SCLM treats anything that happens in Africa as too boring for notice. You know, they're a darker shade of brown, and thus beneath the attention of your average Amurkin news consumer. Still, Africa is just chock full of "Islamicists," and not all of them are very happy with Bush's war on their coreligionists.

It's just a bunch of Africans, so no one really cares, but I found this passage interesting:

The Islamists are making rapid gains - yesterday they took Baladwayne, 20 miles from the Ethiopian border. The Ethiopians have moved troops to the frontier backed up by armour and Hind helicopter gunships. Somalis remember only too well that the Ethiopian invasion of the 1990s began with attacks by such gunships.