What more can be done for Somalia?

[rov1100]

With Cameron sounding like a clone of the ex president Bush what can be done for this god forsaken country that doesn't require more cash being thrown at it or putting boots on the ground?

[rov1100]

http://www.independen...-somalia-6280391.html

[anotheoldgit]

Better not contribute seeing that it contains black issues.

[Zhukov]

oh youre having fun today AOG - and lots of people playing into your hands - must be hard to contain your joy at this festive time?

[ichkeria]

I don't know but I'm intrigued by the piece talking about the revival of the Ottoman Empire (!)

[emmie]

nothing, lawless land, kills more of it's own people, banditry, piracy which doesn't seem to help the lowest down the scale. Leave well alone, the Americans came unstuck the last time, so any intervention on our part will lead to shouts of imperialism, and time to stop interfering.

[craft1948]

I'd be quite happy if we just shot their pirates................

[emmie]

craft, the russians handcuffed a bunch of them to their own boat and set it alight, not right in some eyes of course, but they don't get much piracy now.

[venator]

Will British governments never learn - Queen Victoria is dead, we can't send gunboats any more.

All this could achieve is to stir up Moslem nations and breed more extremists, besides costing money we don't have.

[rowanwitch]

There are times when it is best to stand back but for other nations including the UK to offer a safe place to those who wish to escape. I know there are arguments that say it is wrong to let atrocities happen etc but I think this might be one where it is better for other nations to become involved.

[EDDIE51]

Somalia is a huge country almost the size of the whole of Europe and it has no government, army. police force or any official organisation at all.
The closest it has to any of these is the 'pirate' operations that operate without any policing or control.
That means no postal system , no telephone TV or radio system no proper communications of any sort , not even a proper currency or exchange rate .
95% of Somalia can truly be said to be 'still in the stone age' not even the borders are 100% certain and uncontrolled, any one can just walk in or out of Somalia with out any type of check.
So rov1100 , very much needs to be done but nothing will.

[emmie]

rowan don't you think we offer a so called safe haven to too many already, considering that many come here under the guise as asylum seekers, but are they, and we seem a soft touch where other countries are concerned. When will Britain stop doing this and put British citizens first.

[ichkeria]

"craft, the russians handcuffed a bunch of them to their own boat and set it alight, not right in some eyes of course, but they don't get much piracy now. "

Yes, they overlooked the first law of banditry: which is: "don't mess with other bandits" :-)

[emmie]

ichkeria, no they weren't bandits, but the russian navy. I have the footage, but wouldn't post it here.

[rowanwitch]

Did I say we have to provide a safe haven in the UK... far more sensible to support the surrounding nations in dealing with an influx of refugees... first safe border crossing ...and it could be done under the auspices of a larger organisation like the UN with all the developed countries sharing the burden

[New Judge]

It is an unfortunate and perhaps inconvenient fact that not all nations and their inhabitants conduct themselves in a way that we in the UK find generally acceptable. It’s the same of some animals – lions chase and tear to shreds their prey. We cannot prevent all of these inconveniences from taking place.

I would have thought that the UK would have learned by now that interfering in the internal affairs of other countries is a pointless and very expensive exercise that usually show no tangible benefits. Recent adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan have demonstrated that we cannot prevent the inhabitants of those countries behaving in unacceptable ways any more than we can prevent lions killing antelopes.

Mr Cameron is concerned that tourists and aid workers will fall victim to some of the lawlessness in Somalia. Anybody going to that godforsaken hell hole, for whatever purpose, is fully aware of the situation. They cannot expect the circumstances there to change anytime soon and the best thing the government can do is to advise against travel there, refuse permission for direct flights to and from there to use UK airports and airspace and generally make it extremely difficult for people to travel to and from the nation. As far as piracy goes, the resources Mr Cameron and others are thinking of pouring into the place to attempt (fruitlessly) to “stabilise” the area would be better spent on reinforcing naval forces in the India Ocean to protect merchant shipping.

Apart from piracy there is no direct threat to British interests from Somalia provided UK citizens are not so stupid as to go there. The last thing the UK needs at the moment is another pointless foreign adventure which, like Afghanistan, will become an endless exercise, with no defined end target and which will consume huge amounts of scarce resources. Mr Cameron would do well to concentrate his efforts closer to home.

[sandyRoe]

An international armed force, perhaps made up of UK and USA troops, should go in and help establish democracy. That tactic worked in Iraq and is on-going in Afghanistan.
A happy side effect of intervention would be that the seas around there would no longer be infested with pirates.

[ichkeria]

"ichkeria, no they weren't bandits, but the russian navy."

Yes, bandits in other words :-)

[emmie]

sandyroe, i hope that was tongue in cheek, there were more dead in Iraq yesterday, can't see that being a democracy for a long time to come. Our intervention alongside the Americans only elicits more trouble, we should stay out of their affairs. I don't wish to see any more British servicemen and women being repatriated home in a box because of a fight we have no business to be in,
Afghanistan is the perfect example, every nation that has had a hand in trying to conquer, or give the ordinary Afghanis freedom, and who should tell them what that is, has come off the worse. Russians got their comeuppance there and so have British military in the long distant past, as we have now.