Missile strike in Somalia

Oh, by the way, the Cheney-Bush administration continues to win friends and influence people in the Muslim world. All in the name of the Global War on Terror, of course: U.S. Strike in Somalia Targets Terror Suspects by Stephanie McCrummen Washington Post 03/04/08.

U.S. forces staged a missile strike early Monday on a house in southern Somalia where several Islamic leaders accused of terrorist activities were thought to be staying, U.S. officials and local residents said.

The attack wounded at least six people and sent hundreds of others fleeing the town of Dobley, about four miles from the Kenyan border, according to residents.

It was unclear whether the strike - the fourth known U.S. attack inside Somalia since Ethiopian troops ousted an Islamic movement from the capital in December 2006 -- had killed any of its intended targets.

The previous strikes, including two carried out by AC-130 gunships that deliver a brutal rain of cannon shells, failed to hit any high-level terrorism suspects but inspired anti-American sentiment among Somalia's traditionally moderate Muslim population.

Gee, imagine that! A hostile foreign power blasts a village, kills some people, maybe including some kind of terrorist if they are lucky, sends hundreds of people fleeing in terror, and they get pissed off at the foreign power. What wrong with these people? Why do they hate us?

This, by the way, is why Karen Hughes and her "public diplomacy" was never more than a joke. When the US feels free to just go shoot up a village in Somalia because somebody thought that there could be some kind of terrorist there, all the nice photo-ops and pretty pamphlets and clever Web pages they can come up with aren't like to do much for the US image in the Arab and Muslim worlds.

Tags: somalia