The US intervention in Somalia against al-Shabaab cannot succeed, because it
doesn't recognize the role that al-Shabaab plays in life in Somalia.
The article omits to mention that the US is responsible for the very
existence of al-Shabaab. The Islamic courts movement had taken
control of Somalia had established peace. Peace with incomplete
respect for human rights, to be sure — Islamists oppose some aspects
of human rights — but peace with incomplete human rights was a big
step up from faction war with incomplete human rights.
Then Ethiopia intervened, clearly as a US proxy, to destroy the
Islamic courts government. One part of it, no longer in power, was
al-Shabaab.