Gettleman's "Rebels With a Cause" -- Ogaden National Liberation Front

The signature moment in Jeffrey Gettleman's "Rebels with a Cause" for this viewer: gunmen coming out of the bush to link up with the rebels with hugs and good cheer all around.

Family.

Although backed by Eritrea, the rebels insist their struggle is not Islamic but rather one involving proprietorship and governance of the Ogaden.

A brief look at the map sets off the (again, romantic) scale of the ambition, but one need not doubt that the Somalis involved receive little to nothing in the way of services from their own embattled transitional government, and that they are also subject to the target practice, among other depradations, of Ethiopean forces in the field, the cultural and political causes of which may wind into the usual oblique game of "hot potato"--i.e., passing around blame, pointing the finger, calling someone else the bad guy.

Given the rebel's complaints regarding lack of education and medical services, one may suppose the protection of firm, benevolent government, which may well turn out their own, would seem a large part of any solution to settling what looks to me a traditional warrior band.

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1. Gettleman, Jeffrey.  "Rebels With a Cause." Video.  New York Times, viewed October 24, 2007.

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Correspondence: James S. Oppenheim

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