Writing in the Times of London, columnist Martin Fletcher would like you to quit being so deuced smug about the routing of Somalia’s Union of Islamist Courts. After all, just like the Taliban did for Afghanistan, they brought order and security to Somalia.

Their leadership included extremists with dangerous intentions and connections. But for six months they achieved the near-impossible feat of restoring order to a country that appeared ungovernable.

This was not done by “suppressing, with draconian punishments, what remained of personal freedoms” — unless you count banning guns and the narcotic qat, which rendered half Somalia’s menfolk senseless. The courts were less repressive than our Saudi Arabian friends. They publicly executed two murderers (a fraction of the 24 executions in Texas last year), and discouraged Western dancing, music and films, but at least people could walk the streets

I don’t know Mr. Fletcher’s politics–the Times is, after all, a Rupert Murdoch publication–but he’s advocating a new vision of the Left very well. Liberty stops at the water’s edge. Human rights be damned; order and security are now in vogue all around the world. Even if it is an Al-Qaeda-linked terror regime that brings it.

Everywhere except America, that is. And Israel. Public order and security are never legitimate concerns there. Unlike the Islamic Courts Union’s good fascism, that’s all just bad fascism, you see.

Oh, you’ll notice Mr. Fletcher says they “discouraged” films? The Islamic Courts also “discouraged” watching soccer games. One way they “discouraged” them was firing randomly into a crowd gathered in a movie theater to watch the World Cup, killing a little girl and the cinema owner. (h/t to Howie.) Alas, the story does not mention whether order was restored by the crowd-blasting, and that’s the most important part, isn’t it, Mr. Fletcher?

Mr. Fletcher is getting some well-earned sass in his comments section, by the way. You may wish to join in.

UPDATE: AJ Strata catches another pro-theocratic-fascism fantasist. Apparently America isn’t popular in Somalia right now. This is in marked contrast to our stellar popularity in 1993, after a massive humanitarian effort to relieve their horrific famine. Why, there were parades in the streets back then.

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