There is an interesting series of essays in foreign affairs. US presidential candidates present their ideas. Here is Obama's...

Renewing American Leadership
Barack Obama
From Foreign Affairs, July/August 2007

After Iraq, we may be tempted to turn inward. That would be a mistake. The American moment is not over, but it must be seized anew. We must bring the war to a responsible end and then renew our leadership -- military, diplomatic, moral -- to confront new threats and capitalize on new opportunities. America cannot meet this century's challenges alone; the world cannot meet them without America.

The problem of US troops in Iraq is not that they don’t speak Arabic…or that they have problems to cope with such strange a cultural environment. Their problem is that they can’t cope with any environment, no matter where they are.

Let’s take an example from Germany, this week. At the event of Hessentag (The day of Hesse), which is a huge annual funfair, lasting for a about a week, German visitors to this venue got the permission to cross a US Army housing area, to access the otherwise difficult to access area.

Instead of letting the citizens pass through, as was agreed, the Americans set up roadblocks, searched the people, denied passage to some, and allowed in groups that were accompanied by military vehicles. When the local mayor tried to take pictures, he was arrested and bound, only to be released after German police insisted.

What is the result? There is a turmoil now…the inhabitants of the city of Butzbach are furious. They paint “Ami go home” signs and rally at the gates of the US area.

Nowadays most of the citizens of Germany will speak at least some English, there is no major cultural discrepancy between North America and Europe. However, if one is mindless of one’s environment…considers the whole world as one’s own territory, then it’s no wonder that there is no increasing friendship greeting US troops all over the world.

I grew up in Westfalia, surrounded by Rhine Army barracks, but even at the high time of IRA threat to British forces I have never come across, or heard of, any behaviour like that.

http://www.fr-online.de/frankfurt_und_hessen/lokalnachrichten/aktuell/?em_cnt=1150313

cheers,

Olaf

PUNTLAND...again...

Earlier I posted 'ever heard of the army of Puntland?'

the story continues. See this NYT article http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-usa-somalia-qaeda.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

it is also interesting to see how modern naval force can be used.

U.S. Strikes Reported on Qaeda Suspect In Somalia
Sign In to E-Mail or Save This Print By REUTERS
Published: June 2, 2007
Filed at 4:36 a.m. ET

Skip to next paragraph BOSSASSO, Somalia (Reuters) - A U.S. warship attacked a suspected al Qaeda target in northern Somalia on Friday, CNN reported, and residents said missiles pounded hills where foreign jihadists fled after clashing with local forces.

There was no immediate news of casualties from the strike, which unnamed sources told CNN was the second in six months to target a suspect in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 240 people.

A Pentagon spokesman declined to comment on the report.

Locals in Barga, a port in Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region, said the missiles appeared to be aimed at a group of Islamists, including foreigners, who landed by boat in the area on Wednesday and had a gun battle with local police.

"Missiles fired from a ship hit the mountains where the Islamic fighters and foreigners are hiding," one resident, who asked not to be named, told Reuters by radio phone on Saturday. "A plane was circling and guiding the ship where to hit."

He said Puntland forces were also pursuing the group, which one senior local official said were remnants of an Islamic Courts movement that ruled much of southern Somalia last year.

Another Barga resident said at least two uniformed U.S. military officers arrived in the port late on Friday.

"They were driven by Puntland troops and were carrying telecommunications equipment," he said. "It looks like Puntland gave the Americans permission to fire at the wanted Islamists."

The United States also launched air strikes in southern Somalia in January aimed at three top al Qaeda suspects but killed their allies instead, U.S. officials have said.

SIX TARGETS

Those suspects were wanted for the embassy bombings too, and were attacked near a coastal village where Islamist leaders fled after being routed from the capital Mogadishu by the Somali interim government and its Ethiopian military allies.

The Puntland official said the group headed into the hills behind Barga after arriving by boat from that southern village, Ras Kamboni. He said it included 13 foreign fighters.

Washington says six al Qaeda operatives or associates are in Somalia, including alleged embassy bomber Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, and Abu Talha al-Sudani, accused of orchestrating the 2002 bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya that killed 15.

Others include Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, hardline leader of the ousted Somali Islamic Courts Council (SICC), and Adan Hashi Ayro, head of the SICC's feared military wing, the Shabaab.

"We recognize the importance of working closely with allies to seek out, identify, locate, capture, and if necessary kill terrorists and those who would provide them safe haven," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.

"The very nature of some of our operations, as well as the success of those operations is often predicated on our ability to work quietly with our partners and allies," he added, when asked to comment on the CNN report.

In Somalia's chaotic capital a district chairman was killed on Friday, the latest victim of suspected Islamist rebels who have vowed to wage an Iraq-style insurgency.

In the southern port of Kismayu, police said a local intelligence chief, Maktal Farah, was also killed on Friday.

"He was shot several times in the head by masked men," said Kismayu police chief Ibrahim Khalif, who survived an attack himself when gunmen sprayed his car with bullets on Wednesday.

(Additional reporting by Guled Mohamed in Mogadishu, Sahra Abdi Ahmed in Kismayu, and Kristin Roberts and Doina Chiacu in Washington)