Ethiopia

I keep writing about the neglected fronts in the fight against al-Qaeda and showing how fundamentalist Sunni Islam is rising worldwide while Bush mires us deeper and deeper into the war in Iraq, a war that had nothing to do with the people who attacked America on 9/11.

Somalia has been part of the war on al-Qaeda for many years now. And yet Republicans seem hell-bent on ignoring it. When Clinton had stabilized 90% of Somalia, with the (sometimes reluctant) cooperation of most of the Somali leaders, Republicans complained that his intervention (initiated by the elected George Bush) had no strategic purpose and no exit strategy. Odd that they said that about a nation that went on to become a focal point of al-Qaeda activity and which is now poised to become a regional disaster, yet they don't say the same thing about Bush's Iraq quagmire which also has no obvious strategic purpose, except to distract from the war against al-Qaeda, and has no exit strategy. Clinton recognized the situation in Somalia as one where religious fundamentalism and political chaos would prevail if we did not act to stabilize the are. Yet, Republicans blocked his efforts, forcing a withdrawal and subsequently political chaos resulted, leaving it to al-Qaeda linked, Taliban-like fundamentalists to provide a measure of stability. The jist of a BBC Radio show I participated in was just that: Somalis welcomed the US intervention, hoping it would bring stability, felt betrayed when the US left suddenly, then, after years of civil war, welcomed the fundamentalists as providing some safety and stability. In effect, Republican neglect of the region, along with neglect of Afghanistan, Pakistan and a whole slew of nations, was allowing what I call a nascent fundamentalist Sunni Caliphate to get going, creating fundamentalist, often al-Qaeda linked groups to form all over the world.

When Caoily was 10 months old, she came down with rotavirus. If you have children, and you've been through this, then you know how awful this common infection is. Everything you put into your child--in my case, breastmilk and some solids--comes out in a very short time as a watery, noxious, seemingly neverending river of shit that overflows diapers. I would breastfeed her, and she would be shitting simultaneously, covering both of us in it as I tried to get fluids into her to keep her from dehydrating.
Our pediatrician hospitalized her after 12 hours. For three days, she stayed on a simple solution of electrolytes and fluid through an IV in her leg, the only vein the anesthesiologist (I had insisted on an anesthesiologist) could find to puncture.
She was one of the lucky ones.