THE WAR ON AL-SHABAB: A BAD IDEA – Alex Ndungu

As a write this article Kenyan soldiers are in the unforgiving terrain that is Somalia trying to fight out with slippery ghouls in the name of Al-Shabab. Tomorrow withe the benefit of hindsight we shall be castigate and be entirely unforgiving to those politicians and policy makers who made this rush decision to set our soldiers to war.

Do not get me wrong, I am and adherent of the school of thought that calls for the sanctity and of international boundaries and the integrity of national boundaries. The question that begs though is, why didn’t we show our metal to Uganda for stealing our Island (Migingo) from our very noses?

I perceive an out of scene marionette read the (USA)directing our every move. We not only fight for our national interests in this war but also advance the national strategic interests of another sovereign power. We are the foot soldiers though, we shall lose our lives and the lives of poor innocent civilians if Al-shabab’s threat to revenge is taken seriously.

Things need not be like this though. The war on Al shabab nee not be approached on the three pronged approach; (land, air and naval)that our soldiers say will break Al-Shabab. For starter Al-Shabab thrives on a diet of young supple somali’s conned into believing that their course is to fight against the enemies of Islam. One of the Al-Shabab spokesman on an interview said that Kenya will pay dearly for invading Islam’s holy land, i fail to remember when Somali was any one’s holy land.

That aside i think the war on Al-shabab can be fought not in Soamalia but in New York, Stockholm or Mombasa or in any other world capital. The war on Al-Shabab can only be won over through i diffusion of extreme religious dogma that is prevalent in London as it may be in Kismayu or Mogadishu. If the Islamic clerics are won over and made to understand that Al-shabab offers no good for the Somali people, then certainly the dollars will stop coming and with it the young youth from around the world cheated into believing that a Jihad is on between enemies of Islam and the Al-shabab.