BAHRAIN: U.S. families returning to Persian Gulf nation

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The poet suggests that good fences make good neighbors.

And so U.S. and Bahraini officials have broken ground for a perimeter wall around the Department of Defense Bahrain School -- in advance of this fall’s return of U.S. military and civilian families to the Persian Gulf nation.

In July 2004, about 275 family members were evacuated amid concerns about an increasing threat of terrorism in the island nation that is headquarters to the U.S. Fifth Fleet.

Now that threat seems to have waned sufficiently that the U.S. is allowing families to return. Still, a protective wall around the school seemed like a prudent move.

The Bahrain school has about 460 students, including children of the Bahraini ruling class.

-- Tony Perry, San Diego