'THE RESPONSE of the US forces is exaggerated. This act of reprisal was a real massacre' thundered the Vatican newspaper.
Italy's press echoed this view, forcing their government to make angry noises to the UN over the bombing of Mogadishu on 12 July.
Thanks to their colonial domination of Somalia, Italy has for some time been aware of growing anti-American and anti-UN feeling. more popular than ever - a symbol of defiance against the imperialists. UNOSOM II has failed in its stated objectives. Food supply lines are more threatened than ever and the militias which harass ald distribution remain armed.
The UN has been extremely partisan in its dealings with the militias. In the southern city of Kismayo, Belgian paratroopers disarmed Aidid loyalist Colonel Omar Jess.
This enabled a rival warlord, General Morgan, to take Free of imperialist intervention and with democratic goverments the goal of a united Somalia becomes much more closer.
Until a workers" and peasants' government is estabished, however, any "democratic' order will be unstable.
But even a temporary end to the crisis the warlords and imperialists have created will make it easier for the small Somali working class, concentrated in the Ogaden and throughout the Arab East, to build up a social alternative.