Usually when trying to figure out the direction of a country’s policy toward another country or people, analysts look at issues such as national interests, economic motives, strategic objectives, issues that can be lumped together as the objective factor. But in reality, government policies are rarely driven only by objective factors, but more likely are driven by a mix of the above-mentioned objective factors as well as subjective factors such as the people involved in formulating and carrying out the policy, their beliefs, prejudices, and personalities. Since most of the commentaries on Somalia concentrate on the objective factors, for example the terrorist threat emanating from al-Shabaab’s takeover of central and southern Somalia, let us take a break from this well-beaten track for a minute and look at the subjective factor for a change, more specifically, let us examine President Obama’s attitude to Somalia. Needless to say, President Obama’s attitude to Somalia was influenced by his experiences with Somalis and Somalia. So let us find out what are these experiences.

From what we have gathered, President Obama’s first significant experience of Somalis was during his visit to Northeastern Kenya which he visited in 2006 when he was a senator. That visit probably made a positive impression on the young senator, but whatever positive impact it may have had became a dangerous liability when his opponents during the presidential campaign circulated a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothes in order to portray him as someone who is not part of the American mainstream.

Obama’s second Somali experience was the reported threat to his life by Somali terrorists during his inauguration as president (some reports later said the threat was a hoax).

His third encounter with Somali-related issues was the holding of Captain Richard Phillips as hostage by Somali pirates. Although that incident ended in the killing of the Somali hostage-takers by US Navy Seals and the freeing of Captain Richard Phillips, it was a tense few days where Obama’s leadership was tested in a life or death situation.

The pressure that this episode exerted on President Obama was revealed by his Senior Advisor David Axelrod who when asked what it is like to be working in the White House talked about how working there means you work under pressure and not knowing where the next crisis will come from, then gave as an example sudden and unexpected hostage-taking about which he must inform the president and say, “ Sir, the pirates got the ship, what should we do now?”

It is not only the president who has accumulated a list of negative experiences with Somalia, his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, did the same too, for surely she must remember the agony that her husband went through when American servicemen were dragged through the dusty streets of Mogadishu.

If one adds to this portrait the constant threat that Somalia’s al-Shabaab terrorists pose to the United States, one can imagine the negative picture that the President and some top people in his administration have of Somalia.

There is however one bright spot when it comes to Somali-related issues which has not caused President Obama any personal grief, but on the contrary, has been helpful to him and to the US in terms of its security and upholding democratic ideals: that place is Somaliland. But in a case of bad news drowning out the good news, instead of paying attention to the good news from Somaliland, President Obama has let himself, for far too long, to become a hostage of the destructive pull of Somalia-related issues. Again, there is positive news on this front too, since Obama recently made statements making clear that he intends to help those Somalis who help themselves. Ironically, shifting his attention to Somaliland may help President Obama in dealing effectively with Somalia’s problems. Professor I. M. Lewis, the foremost authority on Somalis shares this view of Somaliland holding important lessons for how to solve Somalia’s problem (see his article “Somalia has a role model for success on its doorstep” http://www.somalilandtimes.net/sl/2010/448/8.shtml.

Still, it remains to be seen if President Obama will translate his statements into reality and instead of dwelling on his negative experiences with regard to Somalia-related issues turn his focus to the positive developments in Somaliland.

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