Violence in Somalia had been on the rise since the start of the Bush administration. Bush then sent American troops to the region to counter the warlords and protect the starving citizens. Aidid started to become to powerful, his men were firing into presses and killing civilians. On October 3, 1993, the US intelligence learned of a secret meeting that was taking place in a two story building. They confirmed that Aidid himself, would be there. So US forces would try and seize the building, and in the battle, we would have a Blackhawk down. There were 18 US soldiers who were killed, and as many as 500 Somalians who died over a 17 hour period. The US forces were on a UN sanctioned mission to capture warlord Mohammed Farrah Aidid. This was the biggest fire fight since the Vietnam war. Aidid started to become to powerful, his men were firing into presses and killing civilians. During the fire fight the Somalis downed five US helicopters. The war cost many US soldiers their lives and some the use of there limbs. They placed special forces in positions in which they were not trained for - civilian crowd control and urban fighting. They could have done a better job of planning the attack out. They went straight into the heart of civilians and could not control the crowds or the fighting.
Decisions were made and they are lived with. You cant take back what is already done. But the US has learned from the mistakes and have grown as country and military because of it. US citizens were shocked when they saw US soldiers being drug through dusty Mogadishu streets, and Bill Clinton immediately ordered the US forces to return home the next day. The Black Hawk Down Incident shaped the US policy in the long term with the restricted American contact and involvement in somewhere we should not be.
With all this being said, we should not have fought in this war. We got nothing out of it but dead soldiers. We did learn that we should be more prepared and have better planned missions. But we lost to many lives to try and capture one man. Do you think that this battle was a success or failure?
Our men and country did not prepare for this war to be as gruesome as it turned out to be. They thought it would be short and to the point. Even if the missions were planned out better on America's part then the Somali soldiers I think still would have shocked the U.S. The Somali soldiers always came in large groups to overwhelm American soldiers. I am glad that Clinton made the decision to bring home the troops after realizing how awful the Americans were treated. I would definitely say that this battle was a failure because nothing went as planned and way too many lives were taken in this tragic event.
ReplyDeleteI think this battle was a failure. However, It did have the potential to be a success. The problem was that the U.S. underestimated the Somali militia. The Somalis would come in huge groups and take on small amount of U.S. soldiers. The Americans could barely hold up to the fire they were receiving. They also should not have left necessary items back at camp because they thought they wouldn't need them. If they would have gone in with more men and with a better plan I believe they could have easily conquered this battle.
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