Does Anyone in Their Right Mind Think These People Can be Negotiated With?

Somalia has been and remains a very dangerous place. Since the US and the UN abandoned it in 1993 after the 'Blackhawk Down' debacle, it has been a lawless haven for criminals, thugs, thieves, and Islamic militants. Many of the terrorists our troops are fighting have been trained in camps in Somalia. Pirate bands operate freely out of Somali ports. The general population of Somalia is suffering under a brutally imposed brand of strict Sharia law.

The Times of India reports that women on Somali streets are being rounded up by masked men, marched to public locations, stripped and whipped. The reason - they are wearing bras. The excuse - wearing a bra is being deceptive towards men. Somalis, foreigners, it doesn't matter - anyone on the street is fair game.

The women are then made to show their whip marks, and shake their breasts to prove that they are real/natural.

This is done in the name of Islam. What it really is - a bunch of sadistic perverts getting off on beating and humiliating women.

Movies, music, musical ringtones on cellphones, dancing in any form, even soccer have all been banned, along with many other parts of everyday life we would take for granted.

Brutal, harsh, uncompromising, evil .... this core of beliefs, pushed by a small minority of thugs who enjoy imposing their will on others, who enjoy making others suffer, who enjoy controlling others - that is what we are up against. We, as a nation, cannot forget that.

The United States, in particular the Clinton Administration, tried to deal with Somalia in a half assed manner in the early '90s. What resulted was the battle we've come to know under the 'Blackhawk Down' banner, where American forces heroically fought thousands of Somalis in the streets of Mogadishu. 19 Americans died in the battle. The root cause? The Clinton Administration's insistance on treating these people like criminals, not enemies, and then not giving our forces adequate support to carry out the mission they had been given. Sound familiar? America retreated after getting our noses bloodied, and the place has been a festering hotbed for our enemies ever since. Sooner or later, it is going to have to be dealt with.