Good News From the Darkest of Places

The great thing about extremists is that they overplay their hands.  The Sunnis in Iraq realized that the AQ types were a greater threat than the infidel Americans.  The Taliban have had been constrained by their past--they only gain through coercion.  The people know what a Taliban government would look like, and are not attracted to it. And now it appears to be the case that Shabab, the fundamentalist Islamic movement in Somalia, may have gone too far as well.  It is too early to tell for sure, but Somalis are starting to turn against them.  Hearts and minds may be cliched, but antagonizing the people makes it mighty hard to win.

Again, we need to be cautious about this, because there is a lot going on here, and it is not clear that the situation has tipped far enough to be irreversible or even anywhere close to that. Moreover, replacing Islamic fundamentalism with clan warfare is not much of an improvement.  The next big question is whether the clans can get along at all and for how long.

But, there is room for some hope in a place where hope has been systematically attacked for decades.