Banana Kiosk revisited!

A little over a year ago, the U.S. helped Ethiopia invade Somalia and drive the ruling Islamic Courts Union out of Mogadishu. Yglesias and I thought that was a little problematic. We said so. A medicine cabinet-ful of douches attacked us.

So what's happening in Mogadishu these days? These days the Ethiopian-backed Somali government is falling to the Islamists.

Islamist insurgents poured into the streets to defend the merchants. The government troops got hammered, taking heavy casualties and retreating all the way back to the presidential palace, supposedly the most secure place in the city. It too came under fire.

Mohamed Abdirizak, a top government official, crouched on a balcony at the palace, with bullets whizzing over his head. He had just given up a cushy life as a development consultant in Springfield, Virginia. His wife thought he was crazy. Sweat beaded on his forehead.

“I feel this slipping away,” he said.

By its own admission, the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia is on life support. When it came here to the capital 15 months ago, backed by thousands of Ethiopian troops, it was widely hailed as the best chance in years to end Somalia’s ceaseless cycles of war, chaos and suffering.

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