Pinprick attacks on US forces mount worldwide

AMMAN, JORDAN – A shooting attack on US Marines during a live-fire exercise in Kuwait Tuesday is the latest in a string of pinprick strikes against expanding American forces abroad – even in nations that welcome the US presence.
One US Marine died and another was wounded as about 1,000 US Marines and Navy sailors took part in the annual Kuwait-US war game, Eager Mace. Two unknown assailants – reportedly civilians – pulled up in a pickup truck, got out, and opened fire. US troops returned fire and killed the two.

Since it was liberated from Iraqi occupation by a US-led coalition in the 1991 Gulf War, Kuwait has been the Middle East nation most genuinely sympathetic toward American policy in the Gulf, and the most hospitable, providing military bases, training and support.

Unlike in Saudi Arabia, extreme Islamist sentiment in Kuwait is rarely directed at the US; Al Qaeda operatives have never been tolerated there.

But as the US gears up to expand Washington's "war on terror" to Iraq, a series of fresh attacks against US forces – even in nations where the majority support the US presence – underscores the risk to growing US military deployments.

From Kuwait and Afghanistan to South Korea and the Philippines, US forces have been recently targeted in ways that seem to bear out, even if partially, fresh promises by Al Qaeda and its supporters to continue their war against America.