Washington was used.

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=16201

Washington's tactical error in Somalia

Somalia (CIA)
CIA

Commentary by Jen Alic for ISN Security Watch (16/06/06)

Washington's support for the warlord alliance in Somalia has proved a foreign policy catastrophe that more than anything demonstrated how ill-conceived intervention, born of impatience, could backfire.

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Aside from stoking the fires of anti-American sentiment and creating enemies out of potential allies in a geostrategically significant location, Washington is being blamed by African and Western diplomats for the four months of bloodshed that ended in the Islamic militias' victory and claimed the lives of some 350 people, mostly civilians.

While Washington has never publicly confirmed or denied reports that it funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to Somali warlords, enough inside sources have conceded as much to a variety of major news organizations, and the reports have gained wide currency around the world.

Washington was used. The warlords' new alliance and new goal ostensibly of catching a few suspected foreign al-Qaida militants believed to be hiding out in lawless Somalia was all the CIA apparently needed to allow itself to be dragged in to the quagmire. News agencies have quoted anonymous sources in the US Department of State as expressing regret over the slapdash operation and the agency's failure to predict the consequences.