Anti-Americanism has set Kabul alight while Mogadishu counts the hours as the US-backed Anti-Terror Alliance loses ground to militant Islamists, writes Gamal Nkrumah The United States seems to learn nothing. The security situation in Afghanistan continues to worsen ad infinitum. The violent anti-American protests that rocked the Afghan capital Kabul this week were the worst since the political demise of the Taliban in 2001. Protesters in Kabul pelted US military vehicles with stones. Beleaguered President Hamid Karzai is at a loss -- he is seen as a US stooge. "Death to America" and "Death to Karzai" the angry Afghan demonstrators cried. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan is in big trouble. In Somalia, the risk of the country falling into the effective control of Islamist militants is real. Current developments in Mogadishu and anti-US protests in Afghanistan are a reminder that the grave mistakes and miscalculations of the administration of US President George W Bush must now be corrected. Washington must seriously review and re-examine its foreign policy, and especially the so-called war on terror. Conflicts as intractable as those in Somalia and Afghanistan cannot continue indefinitely. The risks are heightened by a US foreign policy that threatens to make Islamist militancy even more popular in the Muslim world. Islamists will eventually, at this rate, hold sway in Somalia, Afghanistan and other Muslim nations. The writing is on the wall. People appreciate the lack of corruption and relative security afforded by the Taliban and now by Islamists in Mogadishu. The people of Afghanistan hark back to the days of national dignity and are understandably wary of US intentions. The US-backed "anti-terror" warlords in Somalia, like their counterparts in Afghanistan, certainly have problems. Their militias are recalcitrant and undisciplined. In sharp contrast to the Taliban, or to the Islamists who now control 80 per cent of Mogadishu, the militias of the warlords terrorise the local population and are regarded as tribal and serving the narrow interests of their leaders. This explains the popularity of the Taliban four and a half years after the US-led invasion ousted them from power. The Islamists of Mogadishu, like the Taliban, are widely perceived to be honest, straightforward and trustworthy. The US- backed Anti-Terror Alliance in Somalia is regarded as corrupt; the Islamists popularly applauded as nationalist visionaries. Like the Taliban, their nationalism is one with a difference; they are nationalists not only in the narrow country-specific sense; they are nationalist in the sense of the Muslim umma, or nation. They are anti-tribalist, set fiercely against clannish politics. It is for these reasons that the popularity of the Taliban, and the Islamist militants of Mogadishu, is unlikely to wane in spite of foreign pressure. Washington and its allies seem to have let their attention drift. In Somalia, Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi has ordered four cabinet ministers -- also warlords in Mogadishu -- to return to Baidoa where the transitional government is headquartered. "There is plenty of popular sympathy for the Islamic courts," the Somali Ambassador to Egypt Abdullah Hassan Mahmoud told Al-Ahram Weekly. Last Thursday, the tentative ceasefire between the Anti-Terror Alliance and the Islamist militants was interrupted. Fighting resumed on Saturday after a brief lull on Friday. On Monday, in the Mogadishu districts of Galgalato and Daynile, tensions once again flared into open conflict, with gun battles erupting between militant Islamists and members of the Anti-Terror Alliance. The fratricidal conflict in Mogadishu left 60 people dead last Thursday. The fighting seriously reduces the Baidoa government's capacity for policy-making. The time for muddling through is over. Warlords of the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism -- the proper name of the so-called Anti-Terror Alliance -- accused Islamic courts of sheltering Al-Qaeda members. The warlords are working closely with the US Anti- Terror Task Force based in neighbouring Djibouti. Meanwhile, Somali authorities have put enormous effort into concluding a peace accord between the Anti-Terror Alliance and militant Islamists. Somali President Abdullah Youssef -- based in Baidoa 250 kilometres northwest of Mogadishu -- issued a warning to warlords before he left the country to participate in the Sahel and Sahara conference in Libya. Security Minister Mohamed Qanyare, one of the Anti- Terror Alliance warlords, and another cabinet minister and warlord, Moussa Yalahow, were recalled to Baidoa. The Somali president warned that if they failed to show up in Baidoa they would be sacked from the transitional cabinet. The Anti-Terror Alliance warlords and the Islamists signed a ceasefire agreement last month. Sheikh Sherif Ahmed signed on behalf of the Islamists and Nur Daqle signed for the Anti-Terror Alliance. The leaders of the Islamic courts are mostly educated in Saudi Arabian universities and are articulate speakers when they make appearances on pan-Arab satellite stations such as Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya. They are suave and sophisticated, despite their apparent religiosity, and their Arabic is impeccable. They have made a good impression and have a strong following both at home and abroad. They have instilled law and order in the areas they control. Somalia as a whole is not yet in a happy position. In sharp contrast, Anti-Terror Alliance warlords are feared for their barbarity and indiscipline. They even bomb hospitals and clinics and are notorious for indiscriminate killings. The people of the Muslim heartlands have far too much at stake to turn their back on this latest crisis in Somalia and in Afghanistan. Anti-Terror Alliance warlords have escaped lightly, but politically they have lost all credibility. It would be a serious mistake to be complacent about the skyrocketing popularity of political Islam in Somalia. Militant Islamists have so far happily tolerated the existence of opinions contrary to their own.
