EnglishPaul

It seems to me that there is quite a mental leap to be able to identify the Somalian war as a western risk just because one of the fighting parties happens to be Islamic.

From the summary of the wikipedia link, it would seem that the biggest risk is that Ethiopia is going to be forced to enter into a full-on war with neighbours like Eritrea. Incidentally, American special forces seem to have already been involved.

I wonder what the nature of our Al-qaeda threat is? Is Nik right that a Muslim versus non-Muslim war is coming? For that to be sensible then all Muslims must share the same values, notably to see the destruction of the infidel. But I struggle to think how Muslims round the world are one like-minded functioning unit, it certainly isn't true of the Christian church. So perhaps Muslims just provide a good starting point for conversion to radical Islamic fighters, which isn't a very good reason to war all Muslims. And my suspicion is that most radical Muslim fighting groups are pretty diverse in doctrine, and unless united in a greater cause would quite happily war each other.
So on that point, the west need not worry on its own interests.

As for the people of Somalia; they have a really bad deal, and for the sake of that whole area of the world I can only hope that AU intervention and world diplomatic pressure can find a peace.