MWANGI: We salute our fallen troops, but did they have to die?

By Isaac Mwangi, East African News Agency

Just like what happened to Ugandan and Burundian soldiers, Kenyan troops this week paid the ultimate price of trying to stabilize a country infested by non-peace loving militants when a large number of soldiers were killed by the Al Shabaab militants.

Initially, the Kenyan government denied that its base in the remote town of El Adde had been overrun by Al Shabaab militants, even as accounts from the field seemed to indicate that the militia had taken control of the town.

It was the kind of battle that had perhaps never been anticipated, it being assumed that Al Shabaab had been neutralized and could not take on a conventional army in this manner. The only way the militia could strike back after losing militarily would be through terrorist attacks aimed at soft civilian targets, many would have assumed. That assumption has now proved costly.

The attacks against military targets show that the Islamist insurgents in Somalia are now getting bolder – and perhaps better organized and equipped as well. How East Africa responds will have serious repercussions on regional security now and in the future.

Indeed, the losses that the mighty Nigerian army has suffered against the Boko Haram Islamist militia in West Africa had made it a laughing stock. Now, East Africa is faced with a danger of equal proportions. If the dangerous insurgents at our doorstep are not neutralized, they could become emboldened and begin openly carving out territory for themselves, in the manner of Boko Haram.

So, how did we get to this point? The problems in Somalia can be traced back to the fall of the regime of the country’s dictator Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991. Warlords immediately took over, carving out territories for themselves in accordance with clan-based loyalties and alliances. That disorder was allowed to continue for years, and Somalia has remained lawless to date.

One way of sorting out any insecurity issues in East Africa arising from Somalia would be by taking greater care of our own borders, in addition to sealing the loopholes of corruption that allow terrorists to infiltrate our countries. And when attacks occur, we could choose to undertake retaliatory strikes that do not turn our soldiers into an occupation force.

But the events in Somalia must also be seen against the backdrop of other global events, principally the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is this conflict that has grown out of hand and spawned terrorist networks all over the world, until nobody clearly remembers what the initial conflict was all about in the first place. Today, it has boiled down to an unclear Muslim resentment of the West and vice versa.

Yet, this modern crisis is the continuation of a much older conflict between Islam and Christianity, a war that in past centuries saw the launch of the famous crusades to try and retake the lands captured by Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa.

That being the case, the war against Islamic extremism – seen through a global prism – is not a Kenyan or East African affair. The current phase of this global confrontation was manufactured in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, a situation that created the unending enmity between the two great traditions of the East and West, which constantly manifests itself as Islam versus Christianity.

The definitions of terrorism and injustice arising from this conflict will depend on the perspective chosen; the fallout, however, has affected people who were not directly involved in the initial conflict as a result of desperation by the party feeling the dominance and oppression of the other.

East Africans fought in the First and Second World Wars even though they really had no stake in those wars. In the current confrontation, globalization and Westernization have created more of a stake, but we must always keep in mind that we remain pawns in this global confrontation.

From this, Western powers should be at the forefront in sending their sons and daughters to protect their interests in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and of course Somalia. The conflicts between the two great world civilizations that keep arising in various parts of the world are of prime interest to the combatants from those two worldviews.

Does Africa have its own worldview? Must the region and continent be submerged in either of the two global perspectives of East and West? That points to a paucity of thinkers and ideology. We must get away from the propaganda emanating from either tradition and learn to think for ourselves. We will then be able to chart a fruitful path for our countries, one that will not see our soldiers dying to protect global capitalist interests.