Well, if there's one thing you have to admire about Uncle Sam, he's not the type to cut and run...
More than twenty-five years after Black Hawk Down, US military officials are finally feeling optimistic for the future of Somalia. In fact, if all goes to plan, US forces may be able to say "mission accomplished" in a mere seven years from now.
Coincidentally, Somalia's Norwegian-Somali Prime Minister Hassan Khaire was in Washington this week, checking in with John Bolton. Bolton is very impressed with the economic reforms that Khaire and Somalia's American-Somali President, Mohamed Mohamed, have been instituting.
Khaire established his economics bona fides as "Executive Director for Africa" at Soma Oil and Gas. Since Soma's only business is in Somalia, the position would have been a pretty big deal. It gave Khaire valuable insights not only into the oil and gas business, but into patronage networks between business and political elites in Somalia and beyond.
It's no coincidence that both President and PM are business-friendly hyphenated Somalis more loyal to big business than to their own people. Soma Oil and Gas is fronted by a British Aristocrat, backed by a Russian Oligarch, and based in London. The company has a controversial agreement with the Mogadishu government to earn an ownership stake in lucrative off-shore oil fields in return for seismic mapping of the seabed.
The think tank here at Falling Downs predicts that the US mission in Somalia will be extended as long as necessary to ensure the security and stability of those oil fields once they are in production.
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