Mere Pawns by Mike Berger

Carnage littered  the battlefield.
Bodies of soldiers serving their
country lay twisted and turned
on the bloody ground. A gruesome
battle had raged; neither side would
back down.
At dispute was a strip of land and
a handful of little towns. This barren
strip has little redeaming value. Sun
drenched and parched; this is the
Ogadan.
Somalia invaded feeling it was their
right to expand their empire. Ethiopia
fought back. The two haplessly became
pawns in a ugly game of chess. Two
super powers supplied each side
with arms resulting in a stalemate.
The Somalis finally backed down.


What started out as a regional war;
a dispute over a piece of land became
a grotesque thing  ironically, The Ogadan
is a piece of ground that nobody really
wants. This war became a clash of
two ideologies with both Ethiopia and
Somalia the losers.