More troops in Somalia not a solution, experts say

It's been almost two decades since U.S troops were forced out of Somalia after the "Black Hawk Down" battle. Troops from neighboring Ethiopia spent more than two years trying to restore order before withdrawing last year. Now, the U.S. is backing a push by African states to add troops to combat Somali militants. But Somalia experts who have watched violence spin in circles for nearly 20 years are warning that more troops will not bring peace, and will encounter fierce resistance from the dangerous militant group that claimed deadly twin bombings in Uganda last month. Last week African heads of state who met in the Ugandan capital - the site of the July 11 blasts that killed 76 people watching the World Cup final on TV - pledged to add 4,000 new troops in Mogadishu. Those troops will add to the 6,000 peacekeepers from Uganda and Burundi now stationed in Somalia's capital to protect the transitional government there. Somalia has been mired in chaos since warlords overthrew the country's autocratic president in 1991. While few good answers have been found to end near-continuous violence, analysts say the solution does not lie in sending foreign troops to battle the country's most dangerous militant group, al-Shabab. "African leaders are daydreaming. You can't solve Somalia's problems by sending in more troops," said Zakaria Mohamud Haji Abdi of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, a group established to oppose Ethiopia's recent foray into Somalia. "With its devastating effects, the culture of using military might has been tried but failed. Now it is the time to nurture the culture of dialogue."