Ethiopia is reportedly sending members of its army into neighboring Somalia to help support the Somali government’s effort to stabilize the region. The interim government was forced out of the capital Mogadishu when militant opposition forces took control of the city. Ethiopia’s support of the secular Somali government has led the Muslim clerics that run the Union of the Islamic Courts (UIC) to declare a holy war against Ethiopia and claim that Ethiopia is actually invading (and not just sending a few advisors).

The situation is not entirely surprising, since the Islamic militia has managed to work their way into a decades-long conflict and unify past anti-Ethiopian rebel causes while establishing a new pro-Islamic agenda. A long and troubled conflict over the Ogaden region has been a problem for both countries since Somalia became a country in 1960 (and the British gave the Ogaden to the Ethiopians, resulting in war with Ethiopia in 1964). Islamic forces seem to be effective at taking disenfranchised forces and turning them into a co-ordinated international effort to establish fundamentalist states.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that Eritrea is now said to be supplying the UIC with weapons and other support. It’s not clear if this is because of Eritrea’s own decades-long conflict with Ethiopia and support of the Ogaden rebellion (as it helped them gain their own independence) or because they are sympathetic to the formation of a militant Islamic state in Somalia.

Either way, another regional flashpoint is looking more dangerous than ever. Should Iran and Saudi Arabia become more and more relevant to a fight for control of disputed land around the world it is hard to see how the Bush doctrine can help countries that do not want to live under Islamic (or any other form of) fundamentalism. So far America has accused the UIC of being in bed with Al Qaeda and the UIC has accused Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf of being a puppet government of Ethiopia. The Arab League and African Union are the best hope to stabilize and deflate this dispute, and find out whether this is another case of extremist Islamic rebels picking a fight, as respect for America in international affairs continues to fade.