Quote Originally Posted by stoffi View Post
The reason why the US (and others) won't put boots on the ground in Somalia is because of the Rwanda failure. We got burnt. NATO is not present with boots on the ground in Somalia btw, nor any other African country. I don't see how that would help either.

Iraq was about oil, Afghanistan was about revenge.

FYI, Saddam Hussein gassed his own people because the US got the Kurds to revolt in the first Gulf War and then left them to fend for themselves. Saddam took revenge on the Kurds, a furious revenge.

Most soldiers on the ground are like you and me, they are normal people who mean to do good. The vast majority don't mean to kill civilians, though military command sometimes don't care whether or not there are civilians present or not. Also, it helps if soldiers don't come from the worst slums because ignorance is extremely dangerous.
Hmm thats funny, according to NATOs website there are coalition troops boots on ground in somalia currently. And the US does not have conventional troops on ground, but I wouldn't be suprised if they do happen to do UAVs etc or lend help for operations as is the usual game plan with their intelligence community.

NATO is an active and leading contributor to peace and security on the international stage. Through its crisis management operations, the Alliance demonstrates both its willingness to act as a positive force for change and its capacity to meet the security challenges of the 21st century.

Since its first military intervention in the Balkans in 1995, the tempo and diversity of NATO operations have increased. NATO has been engaged in missions that cover the full spectrum of crisis management operations ? from combat and peacekeeping, to training and logistics support, to surveillance and humanitarian relief. Today, roughly 135 000 military personnel are engaged in NATO missions around the world, successfully managing complex ground, air and naval operations in all types of environment. These forces are currently operating in Afghanistan, Libya, Kosovo, the Mediterranean, off the Horn of Africa, in Iraq and in Somalia.