The takeover of Mogadishu by members of the Islamic Courts Union should be a huge story. I was planning a trip to Mogadishu in July and so had been in a lot of contact with people there

Resident Scholar Michael Rubin

over the last couple months. While some news reports try to put a positive spin on the situation--saying, for example, that the Islamist militia might restore order, this is shortsighted and eerily parallels the spin which journalists put on the 1996 Taliban takeover of Kabul. From mosques and loud speaker-mounted pick-up trucks, the Islamic Courts Union has told young Somalis that Islamists defeated one superpower in Afghanistan, and Islamists defeated another superpower in Iraq (thank you, Rep. Murtha, for providing such wonderful sound bites on Al-Jazeera; I have had Iraq insurgents quote you to me as well) and that Islamism is the wave of the future. The U.S. can only win this war against Islamic extremism and terror if Washington shows resolve. Unfortunately, in recent weeks, the Bush administration has shown it is no longer in the fight.

Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at AEI.