We can send aid forever and not make any difference it is up to the people to end the wars and killing, untill then Africa will remain a 4th world cripple.

I will agree to a point. When war and destruction is the only thing that you know, then sendind help is ok in order to show people that there is another way. By educating the people of the contry and ensuring that they have the rights that we take for granted are protected, because they are your basic human rights to go to school, practice religion, and speak your mind with out being perciquited. These are rights that we take for granted and forget that not everyone has these rights. So I think it is ok to send some aid but in the same time we educate the people so that they have the strength to stop the wars and killing, on there own.

The only way this situation can change is with the assistance and intervention of world aid groups, either through the United Nations or other humanitarian groups. When generations have known only bloodshed, violence, rape, famine and disease, it becomes a way of life. These people are part of the us and deserve the right to basic human rights and needs fulfillment. Wake up world!

dwolfe96 has got it 100% backwards. Only when the Somalis grow tired of killing one another will the situation change. Period.

World aid groups are not the ultimate answer. No government for 14 years? What will aid organizations or groups do? Come in and tell those people what type of government they will have? First and foremost some form of government needs to be established. I am having difficulty understanding why this is a problem. Especially for 14 years. Those of us that live in freedom and take it for granted would love for those in Somalia to have the same rights. However, those rights are determined by whatever government is established within their own country. It is not up to us in the United States to state what freedoms they should have. I believe the United Nations has something or some type of document related to basic human rights upon which all governments should base the rights of their people. Somalia and the difficulties involved will not end until a formal government is established and the people follow that form of government; where warlords are not the police/army/government or what ever positions they hold. A government establishment should be the first priority.

Yeah, I sure can tell those trash scavenger guys are poor with the cigarette smoking.

Somalia was a product of The European Colonial Legacy which divided the country into 5 Regions. The British Somaliland (Northern Somalia, or Somaliland) and Italian Somaliland (Southern Somalia) joined in 1960 to form the Somali Republic. Somalia had 3 democratic elections and change of Governments between 1960 & 1968, the first African Country to do so. It is merely 40 yrs since independence from the colonial Europe. Compare the Somalia today to America circa 1816 and you will find the following: America1800–1858:North and South Seek Compromise Throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, the Northern and Southern regions of the United States struggled to find a mutually acceptable solution to the slavery issue. Unfortunately, little common ground could be found. The cotton-oriented economy of the American South continued to rest on the shoulders of its slaves, even as Northern calls for the abolition of slavery grew louder. At the same time, the industrialization of the North continued. During the 1820s and 1830s, the different needs of the two regions' economies further strained relations between the North and the South.

...cont... The first half of the nineteenth century was also a period of great expansion for the United States. In 1803, the nation purchased the vast Louisiana Territory from France, and in the late 1840s it wrestled Texas and five hundred thousand square miles of land in western North America from Mexico. But in both of these cases, the addition of new land deepened the bitterness between the North and the South. As each new state and territory was admitted into the Union, the two sides engaged in furious arguments over whether slavery would be permitted within its borders. Urged on by the growing abolitionist movement, Northerners became determined to halt the spread of slavery. Southern slaveholders fiercely resisted, however, because they knew that they would be unable to stop antislavery .....

...cont... Age of Western Expansion At some time in American history, every part of the United States except the easternmost region qualifed as "the West," the last frontier of settlement. As the idea of the West expanded in the public imagination, it became a land of cowboys, buffalo herds, a vast wilderness, and a society that operated on the other side of the law. The West was also the site of frontier warfare between settlers and American Indians. To a large extent, that picture was real, but the American West is far more than just a treasure trove of folklore. It is a vital part of the nation's growth and development, a rich depository of its history. The age of western expansion refers mainly to the period following the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Western expansion includes the lands acquired by treaty or warfare west of the Mississippi River. As a result of the war with Mexico (1846–1848), the United States added land in the Southwest stretching from Texas to the Pacific, including California. Although Nebraska, Kansas, and the Dakotas are not generally considered western states today, much of the fighting for land between white settlers and American Indians and much of the trail blazing and cattle drives took place in those states. War and western expansion went hand in hand. That expansion, a form of continental imperialism, not only created modern cultural icons such as the frontiersman, the cowboy, and the.....

Now compare that period in American History to what Kevin has found in Somalia. I think you will agree it is early to declare the demise of Somalia or Somalis. The Somali people are proud people and they will come thru this period. As an example just see what has happened in Somaliand: free Parlamentary Elections were held in Sep'05 and they elcted a President twice in the past 14 years. They stable and peacful.