Joshua Foust of the Columbia Journalism Review looks at Matt Yglesias' American Prospect article about Somalia, which argues that (a) the country's current state is the fault of George W. Bush's "ignored adventure"; and essentially (b) that the USA should have backed the Islamic Courts.
Foust has the wit to describe the first pillar of Yglesias' argument as "laughably false," but it's this point that I really want to draw attention to, because it's a much more important larger truth:
"Indeed, any realistic take on the problems facing Somalia must consider more than just the American perspective. Somalia plays host to Islamists and at least one known al Qaeda terrorist. Somalia is the homebase of a massive and lucrative piracy in the Gulf of Aden. Somalia does not have a functioning central government, and probably won’t for a long time. But none of this is America’s fault - and examining the country only in terms America seems to care about will badly miss the point."
Josh Foust is a serious commenter. He had much insightful material this past summer on the Georgian invasion at his blog, Registan.net, which covers issues throughout Central Asia. (I had a few spats with him in his comments section, but the contentiousness was about issues and interpretations.)
It's interesting to read the four comments currently posted at the linked CJR article. Three are subsance-free claims that "Foust, you're an idjit," the fourth is Foust's request that posters move beyond ad hominems (sound familiar, NM?).