Why are you soft soaping it. It isn't just islamic court union - it's al qaeda. Last time I looked we were at war with al qaeda world wide. Al qaeda IS a member of the islamic court union.
Sort-of. There are a small number of Al Qaeda fighters in Somalia. There was a chance that the Islamic Courts Union might eventually have become a Taliban-like Qaeda supporter. But that hadn't happened by the time the US and Ethiopia intervened, and it is significantly more likely now because of the public backlash the Ethiopians and US generated. Eventually the Ethiopians will leave and because of how they've bungled things, I suspect that Al Qaeda might just now take over.
That's why the US desperately needs to find a Somali alternative to the Islamists. Not an Ethiopian / foreign alternative but a native born one that won't generate nationalist resentment.