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We are going on Friday. We did see the special on the History Channel last night - The Real Story of Blackhawk Down. It was great but I did turn my head on several occasions. They interviewed the author as well as the men who fought. In particular, the pilot Durant who was held hostage for a few weeks.
The show begged the question of US foreign policy. What are we doing? If our special ops are there to capture Aidid, why not allow them to continue the mission? Why pull out after a significant US won battle? The graphic pictures being broadcast all over the world upset many Americans. (I know I was.) However, war is not pretty. If our forces are called to duty, we must expect casualties. We lost 18 soldiers in that battle and about 75 were wounded. Those who were there volunteered and knew that they may have to pay the ultimate sacrifice. General Colin Powell, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, "In Vietnam, those casualty numbers for one day would not have rated a press conference. Let alone the cancellation of an entire operation." It sent the message, "just kill a few Americans, put it on television, and they will back down." This set the stage for a lot of our inactivity during the massacres in Rwanda, Bosnia and other places.
With the US pull out of Mogadishu, the other members of international peacekeeping forces followed suit. Where did this leave the innocents of Somalia? This left them back to fighting a civil war among competing warlords, no commerce or economic development and little to no foreign aid - the Red Cross even left. The average life expectancy is 40.
What I found ironic, is that Aidid's son had immigrated to the US long before his father became a warlord. He became a US citizen and joined the Marines. He was there in Mogadishu fighting to rescue his fellow soldiers and to protect the Somalis from the warlords but how things change. When his father died, he went back to Somalia and took over where his father left off. He is creating his own chapter of horror. He is utilizing many of the tactics he learned in the U.S. Marine Corps against the very people he had sworn to protect.
Makes you think. What are we doing?
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