Historical Accuracy of Black Hawk Down

The Crossing is a fine reproduction of the accounts General Washington went through on the famous crossing of the Delaware to attack the Hessian’s who had occupied Trenton, New Jersey. The script for the movie was written by Howard Fast a well-known author who has written many historical novels. Many of those novels were turned into movies as well. The director, Robert Harmon, made a few noteworthy biopics on historical topics with one of the best known “Ike: Countdown to D-Day”. It was apparent that these two did some research on the events leading up to and after the crossing of the Delaware took place. The movie The Crossing is mostly historically accurate, portrays General Washington as a strong leader, and demonstrates why even popular culture movies create an

The Black Hawk War was a major conflict between the United States of America and the Native Americans. It, like many Native American versus America wars, is fairly unknown. It took place in the year of 1832. There are many things one should know about the Black Hawk War, such as what started it, the major military events, and what happened once the war was finished.

On July 13, 2008, Taliban fighters launched a major assault on a small U.S. Army outpost in Afghanistan, killing nine soldiers and wounding 27. The story of Wanat is more then just one small group of commanders’ mistakes; it is a window into how the war in Afghanistan went awry and how we can learn from these mistakes to better future missions and future leaders.

Operation Anaconda was the first major joint combat operation against the war on terror that the US was committed to winning. This operation would test our military’s readiness for joint operations against a hardened and willing adversary. The primary mission was to kill/capture Taliban/Al Qaeda forces occupying towns and villages in the vicinity of Shahi Khot in order to gain control of the valley.1 The US needed the towns, villages, mountains, and more importantly, the intricate and hard to access caves cleared of enemy fighters. Units participating in the operation included elements of the 101st Airborne Division, 10th Mountain Division, Special Operations Forces (SOF), and Coalition forces from seven nations

Every year, since the Taliban regime ended, foreign troop numbers within the country have increased dramatically. The greatest increase of troops was about twenty thousand additional troops added to the grand total of sixty-six thousand. With increased troops, the Taliban activity has also intensified. Mullah Saifur Reheman, a Taliban, began to rebuild his militia forces to support the anti- United States fighters. His forces amounted to over one thousand by the beginning of Operation Anaconda in March of 2002. Rebels against the revolution had planned to use the region as headquarters for launching guerrilla attacks (Shapiro). The United States used Kandahar International Airport as an operational base for taking and dispersing personnel and supplies. The number of U.S. troops who operated in the country grew to more than ten thousand against the al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Eventually, the United States and its allies drove the Taliban from power and curtailed al Qaeda’s efforts to plan and execute terrorist attacks at a high cost. The United States special inspector for Afghanistan reconstruction has reported that, when the security for aid workers is counted, the total amount of nonmilitary funds that Washington has appropriated since 2002 “is about one-hundred billion dollars (Emadi).” That is more than the United States has ever spent trying to rebuild a country. There is no need to spend that much money to have an impact, that money just needs to be spent well. In

On November 4th 1979, Iranian revolutionary students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Teheran and took 52 Americans and some military personnel hostage. The students would only release the hostages if America would hand over the Shah to receive trial and most likely execution along with no more interfering in Iranian affairs.3 Many rescue mission attempts, blocking resources, and compromising with Iran gave little to no hope to retrieve the hostages and bring piece. “Under enormous political pressure, on November 12th, President Jimmy Carter ordered the pentagon to begin drawing up plans for a daring – read: foolhardy – rescue mission codenamed “Operation Eagle Claw”.3

The deployment of United States Special Forces to Somalia to apprehend General Aidid was in the interest of the United States, if Nuechterlein's outline of national security interest was anything to go by. Somali had gone through difficult times and there was need to restore normalcy in this Horn of Africa's state. Restoring normalcy would have ensured that stability returned. Moreover, this would have ensured that the instability that had been realized here never spilled over into other Eastern Africa states. Had the United States Special Forces succeeded in apprehending General Aidid, a democratically elected government would have been instituted. This government would have prioritized democratic governance principles that conform to United States Army War College's "Favorable World Order category" (Nuechterlein, 1985). Yes, it was difficult to establish Jeffersonian democracy in Somalia bearing in mind that Somalia was a tribal nation; however, it was something worth giving a short. This could only be made possible by chopping off the head of Aidid's organization and ultimately taking Aidid out of the streets. Under the leadership of Aidid, the United Nations lost at least 24 soldiers of Pakistani origin many of whom were skinned (Bowden, 1997).

I am writing this paper to identify and analyze the historic failed mission of Operation: Eagle Claw. Operation Eagle Claw is a prime example of a failed mission due to lack of communication and sharing of knowledge between government agencies and military branches. This operation took five months to plan and took place on April 24, 1980. The mission was proceeded by an attack on the US Embassy in Tehran, Iran. This attack was made by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who was the leader of Iran at the time. In the late 1970’s when Khomeini took over the Iran, Shah fled the country and was eventually granted entrance into the United States by President Carter in order to obtain treatment for his cancer. Khomeini demanded that the US release

While the opposing armed forces in Somali were firing on the Americans, the rescue team was pinned down. Shawn Nelson was one of the real-life survivors of the mission who was an M60 gunner who came from one of the helicopters by a rope. In an interview with reporter Mark Bowden, he said "We immediately started taking fire from the ground. I could see people below us with weapons maneuvering about.” Another important person in the mission was Mike Durant, a U.S. Army pilot who was captured and held by Somali militants for 11 days and eventually survive the whole ordeal. Unfortunately, Delta Force operators and Medal of Honor recipients Gary Gordon and Randy Shughart sacrificed their lives while attempting to rescue him. The battle lasted 15 hours and left 18 Americans dead and 73 injured. It is also believed that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Somalis were killed. Politically, President Bill Clinton was in trouble and had to get the United States Soldiers out of the country. Graphic videos broadcasted of warlord Mohammed Aidid’s supporters desecrating American soldiers’ corpses put even further pressure on Clinton to remove the

The Pentagon’s Africa Command has worked tirelessly on a decade-long counterinsurgency operation against the guerrilla group. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for crimes against humanity and war crimes

The Ambassador said, “we share the Chair's assessment that Al-Shabaab continues to pose a serious threat to peace and security in Somalia. They have been ramping up attacks after rejecting President Farmajo's amnesty offer.” He also expressed his support of “the request by the Head of the African Union Mission in Somalia for a surge in troops to enable AMISOM forces and the Somali National Army to decisively degrade and defeat Al-Shabaab.”

In August of 1992, President George Bush Sr. sent US soldiers into Somalia to provide humanitarian relief to those Somalis suffering from starvation. The major problems in Somalia started when President Mohammed Siad Barre was overthrown by a coalition of opposing clans. Although there were several opposing groups, the prominent one was led by Mohammed Farah Aidid. Following the overthrow of Barre, a massive power struggle ensued. These small scale civil wars led to the destruction of the agriculture in Somalia, which in turn led to the deprivation of food in large parts of the country. When the international community heard of this, large quantities of food were sent to ease Somali suffering. However, clan leaders like Aidid routinely

The movie Black Hawk Down is a movie that is directed by Ridley Scott in 2001. Stars of Black Hawk Down are Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, and Tom Sizemore. This movie is rated R with a 7.7 rating out of 10. Showing real life situations this is a dramatic, historic, thriller. U.S soldiers dropped into Somalia to capture two lieutenants from a warlord by the name of Mohammed Aidid when the U.S troops were faced with a battle of highly armed somalis.

This paper briefly describes the delayed U.S. involvement in Somalia. The three major operations conducted under the United Nations mandate in Somalia, between 1992 and 1994, in the effort to stabilize a country torn by famine and civil war. Then, it focuses on the operations conducted by the United States Task Force Ranger (TFR) between August 26, 1993 and October 4, 1993, in Mogadishu Somalia. Followed by how limited coordination with the United Nations and the ineffective use of intelligence assets led to a costly tactical victory with heavy casualties.

In the movie Hacksaw Ridge it did helped me understand to topic of the Battle of Okinawa in World War II. The movie helped me picture the historical portrayal of Private Doss saving each and every soldier that fought in the war. Is showed the way he was strong saving them and also for keeping his faith in God throughout his position in the military. Doss had enlisted as a medic and refused to carry a rifle. In reality there are men in the military that refuse to pick up a rifle due to them having a promise with God and/or obey the 10 commandments. I understand it better after the movie because of them showing how he did it saving the soldiers in the hacksaw ridge, the reaction of the soldiers when the captains ordered him to pick up a rifle, and how the Japanese quickly killed them as soon as they saw them. Throughout the movie I just thought first how strong he was to go back and save any soldier that was alive because nobody now a day has the guts to do that and second to keep his faith and promise with god. Also for his dad not accepting Doss and his brother to join the army, and the still joined to protect their country. The movie Red Tails showed me that it doesn’t matter what color, heritage, or male/female you can do anything. It was the Tuskegee Airmen that were African Americans that were servicemen during the World War II. Ever men had a hard time trying to do their job and to fit it even though there was hard times to do that in the same time. In today’s world