This book is the history of the quarter of the century that led up to the American disaster in Somalia. It also describes the rise and fall of the Ethiopian socialist dictator and ruler, Mengistu Haile Mariam. The collapse of that tyranny in 1991 spawned civil wars and regional conflicts that devastated this impoverished region and brought into question the very feasibility of maintaining state structures in the Horn of Africa. That devastation happened at the same time as the rise of al Qaeda and the expansion of Iranian efforts to establish links with Islamist extremists in Africa in the 199 ... More

This book is the history of the quarter of the century that led up to the American disaster in Somalia. It also describes the rise and fall of the Ethiopian socialist dictator and ruler, Mengistu Haile Mariam. The collapse of that tyranny in 1991 spawned civil wars and regional conflicts that devastated this impoverished region and brought into question the very feasibility of maintaining state structures in the Horn of Africa. That devastation happened at the same time as the rise of al Qaeda and the expansion of Iranian efforts to establish links with Islamist extremists in Africa in the 1990s. These effects converged in Sudan, where they remained intertwined. This book integrates detailed narratives of conventional military operations and multiple revolutionary wars.