Word: oakley
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...SOMALI MAN, SAYS U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY ROBERT OAKley, three things are important: "his camel, his wife and his weapon. The right to bear arms is in their soul." That is a stereotyped and simplistic view but with an element of truth. In Somalia's nomadic culture, a weapon has always been essential to defend against unknown enemies in the vast desert. Oakley believes that if American soldiers began confiscating weapons, they would quickly become the enemy...
What makes officials like Oakley reluctant to engage in wholesale disarmament is the ghosts of Lebanon. "In Beirut the people responsible for the policy didn't understand the political situation," he said. "They didn't realize that in doing what we did, we became a combatant." When a narrowly defined military role conflicted with political demands, the Marines came to be seen as everyone's enemy, which led to the 1983 bombing in Beirut that killed 241 servicemen...
Nonetheless, a campaign to disarm Somalis could create hostility. "If we were obliged to go on a house-to-house search -- which we wouldn't do anyway," said Oakley, "the Somalis would see it as rank colonialism." Still some Somali leaders discount a major backlash because, they say, the people are sick and tired of the violence...
...reality, as always, is different from, and harder than, what military planners imagined. Washington is already enlarging the political scope of the U.S. mission. Before the first troops landed, Robert Oakley, the U.S. special envoy, held a series of meetings in Mogadishu that resulted in reports that he had no intention of entering into negotiations with Somalia's warlords, but would simply inform them of U.S. military aims and lay down a deadline to withdraw their gunmen. By Friday, Oakley had brokered a temporary reconciliation between the country's two most powerful clan leaders, General Mohammed Farrah Aidid...
...specific guidelines on how far the troops ought to go in seizing weapons from the local populace, leaving commanders on the ground to figure out the details. Both have stressed, however, that troops will take whatever action they deem necessary when threatened. Pressed on more general plans for disarmament, Oakley said, "We plan to negotiate with the Somalis and have them...