Middle East peace is always the last item on the agenda of our presidents. It’s one of those “legacy builders,” where they get to say, “. . . and he worked tirelessly at the end of his second term in the hopes of building a lasting peace in the Middle East.” Bill Clinton did this. George Bush is doing this. The next president, if he’s lucky to serve two terms, will also doubtless do this.

And now it looks as though we can add yet another foreign policy goal to the list: settling the Somali problem. First, it was Blackhawk Down. Now with this president, he just lobs a bunch of bombs at the problem:

BBC NEWS | Africa | Air raid kills Somali militants

A US military spokesman told the BBC that it had attacked what he
called a known al-Qaeda target in Somalia, but refused to give further
details.

Al-Shabab, considered a terrorist group by the US, is the
military wing of the Somali Sharia courts movement, the Union of
Islamic Courts (UIC), until Ethiopian troops ousted them in 2006.

The group has since regrouped and is in effect in control of large parts of central and southern Somalia.