Somalia

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- With U.S. Marines pouring out gunfire to safeguard a U.N. retreat, the world gave up on woebegone Somalia today.The goodbye was purely military: Seventy-three hours after landing, the last of the Marines, their machine gun barrels still hot, rumbled across the beach and splashed their amphibious assault vehicles into the Indian Ocean, bound for home or duty stations elsewhere.Fading into the distance was the sorrowful pop of Somali gunfire, the national anthem for this disintegrated nation.

When President Bush launched Operation Restore Hope to feed starving Somalis, I was one Somali-American who celebrated the generosity of my adopted country.And when President Clinton, after the successful accomplishment of the American mission to feed Somalis, turned the management of Somalia to the United Nations, I was full of hope that the rehabilitation and the reconstruction of Somalia would take place under American leadership.It is obvious, however, that Somalia isn't getting any closer to becoming a rehabilitated nation.

WASHINGTON -- In another commitment of U.S. forces overseas, President Clinton ordered a 2,000-strong Marine unit yesterday to prepare to re-enter Somalia for the evacuation of the last United Nations peacekeepers from that African nation.Defense officials said the withdrawal of the 15,000 international peacekeepers -- none of them U.S. combat troops -- would likely take place early next year and last a few days, with the Marines providing cover for the final stages of the pullout of both men and machines.

AFGOI, Somalia -- Bright and early each brutally hot day i Somalia, Ali Osman Hassan shows up for work in the middle of nowhere, on the rocky road that links Mogadishu with the interior.Using his hands, Mr. Hassan scoops dirt and rocks into a foot-deep pothole, sculpting a smooth, rounded top. As each vehicle approaches, he draws attention to his handiwork by spinning a piece of cloth like a cowboy's lasso over the filled pothole. Then he pauses, hands raised and smiling, in a bid for donations.

WASHINGTON - Success raises expectations, and as Afghanistan's interim government begins its work, the United States has lifted its head from the dust to examine new potential targets in its war on terrorism. Many an eye drifts toward Somalia. A hop, skip and boat ride away from Afghanistan, the country allegedly contains terrorist-linked groups with al-Qaida ties and makes a ready haven of instability and lawlessness for al-Qaida members seeking refuge. U.S. action against terrorist-linked groups in the country would, one may argue, send a decisive message to those marking Somalia as a place to hide and regroup.

BAIDOA, Somalia -- The famine in Somalia could have been mitigated if the United Nations had dispatched relief experts months ago instead of relying on a small crew of junior staff members in the country, a senior U.N. official has said."

WASHINGTON -- Signaling the start of the U.S. troop withdrawal from Somalia, Defense Secretary Les Aspin said yesterday that 2,500 of the 8,200 U.S. soldiers there would leave by Christmas.Pentagon officials said that about 1,000 soldiers are packing now and would fly home beginning later this week, including 600 members of the Second Battalion, 14th Infantry, from Fort Drum, N.Y.The U.S. troops and firepower in Somalia were increased by President Clinton two months ago after a battle with a Somalian faction in which 18 U.S. soldiers died and 75 were wounded.

Maybe we should have given the food to the media and le them take it to Somalia. It seems like they outnumber our troops anyway.On second thought that wouldn't have worked.The photographers would have taken pictures of the food. And the anchormen would have eaten it.So I guess we need the military after all. Though they did seem like props on the first night they waded ashore at Mogadishu.Navy Seals, heavily armed and their faces covered in camouflage paint, were surrounded by TV crews wearing shorts and T-shirts.

Havre de Grace. -- "It's Vietnam all over again," says Sen. Fritz Hollings of the Somalia debacle. Many people agree with him, which is why he said it, and why it's likely to be over soon -- which would be the right outcome for the wrong reasons.The grisly photos and videotapes coming out of Mogadishu do indeed evoke old nightmares. As was true in Vietnam, in Somalia young American servicemen are dying, sometimes horribly, because of policies made far away by people who know little of war. This infuriates the public.

Looking through his photo album, Ed Johns sees the former beauty of Somalia -- the remains of Italian-style churches, stately government buildings and luxury hotels.The 47-year-old Westminster man is working to restore some of that almost-forgotten beauty in the east African country as the leader of a United Nations effort to rebuild Somalia's four ports."Our job is to get the ports operating again and get them in the hands of the Somalis," said Mr. Johns, who has been home for the past two weeks visiting his wife, Donna.