The dramatic conclusion to the Somali pirate hostage crisis was a clear demonstration of American special forces capabilities and the Obama Administration's willingness to challenge the Somali lawlessness with direct and lethal force. The successful rescue was immediately followed by a number of pirate threats against American interests and information that the United States may soon conduct attacks on Somali pirate land bases in order to help eradicate the problem from the Horn of Africa. Not long after, mortar rounds were lobbed at US Congressman Donald Payne's plane as it left the Somali capital of Mogadishu. Clearly, the problem of piracy is nothing new in the Gulf of Aden but the rhetoric emanating from Washington may soon commit US forces to yet another theater of conflict.
At this point, one has to wonder whether Somalia will become yet another one of America's frontier wars. From Iraq to Afghanistan to the Philippines to Mexico (a postmodern case of barbarians at the gate) and now Somalia, the United States is engaged in a contemporary series of frontier conflicts similar in nature to the ones the Romans fought against the Germanic hordes. With last week's announcements regarding the impending budget cuts at the Department of Defense and the growing reality that the United States may be losing its blue-water naval superiority, the decision to commit forces into yet another lawless region of the world, where the adversary is as much criminal as combatant and largely indistinguishable from the general population, is a decision that could have rippling effects far beyond East Africa.
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