The Battle of Mogadishu Essay

The documentary “Ghost in Rwanda” illustrates the devastation of the 1994 Genocide where approximately eight hundred thousand Rwandans were exterminated by their own government. The genocide was a result of ongoing conflicts between the Hutu, the ethnic majority in Rwanda, and the Tutsi the ethnic minority. The United Nation assisted in the establishment of a peace agreement between the two warring parties and sent General Romeo Dallaire, UN Force Commander, to Rwanda to ensure the terms of the agreement were honored. Dallaire had never seen action and welcomed opportunity to make a difference supporting peace in Africa. The peace mission was especially important to Dalliaire in light of recent U.N. failures to maintain peace in Somalia and Bosnia.

In early 1990 Somalia was going through a civil war. Their dictator Mohammed Farrah had order the closer of all food transportation that entered the country. He`s goal was to kill his own people by starving them to death. About 300,000 civilians had died of hunger. In response, the united States send troops to Somalia to capture Mohammed Farrah., the self-proclaimed president of Somalia. They soon found out that the best strategic was to capture Omar Salad Elmi and Abdi Hassan Awale Queybdiid, two of Mohammed top advisers. The special mission was to be done by experienced man as well as new recruits. The operation was supposed to have taken about 30 minutes on Octuber 3, 1993. There objective were the two top advisers of Mohammed that

troops on a hopeless humanitarian mission pulled out of Mogadishu, Somalia. A few Americans realize that during this mission, U.S. troops had the most continuous and gruesome battle fought by American’s since the Vietnam War. The afternoon of October 3rd, 1993, soldiers of Task Force Ranger, and Delta Force were sent to capture two lieutenants of a rebel Somalian warlord and return to base. This mission was supposed to take 30 min, but instead, the soldiers were pinned down in the middle of Mogadishu market and in a desperate effort of kill or be killed. For about 20 hours, U.S. soldiers created a bloody firefight that resulted in 19 American fatalities and the death of 1000 Somali fighters. Black Hawk Down tells the story of that desperate battle, from all angles of the war.

When fighting the Vietnam War many did not think it possible for the United States to loose. Those fighting underestimated the power of the Viet Cong. With a foreign land and foreign customs Marines struggled to get accustomed to the way the war was fought. Philip Caputo addresses these learned lessons in A Rumor of War. Lessons that were learned in Vietnam also have relevance to the current war in Afghanistan. The men in both wars fought against an enemy that blends in with the locals. Philip Caputo’s first hand account of the Vietnam War shows the mistakes that were made and how those lessons taught the United States not to make the same mistakes in Afghanistan.

In 1994, a conflict the US couldn't understand, between clans and tribes it didn't know, in a country where there were no national interests, occurred. The Rwandan War of 1994 did not deserve US intervention. There are four contentions on why the US should not have gotten involved in this Rwandan war. The Black Hawk Down incident, how the UN was there previously there, there being no Possible Gain, and having nothing to do with us. Through the examination of the novel, An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina, it is Obvious that these key points are valid.

Operation Al-Fajr in Arabic, Operation Phantom Fury was the code name given to the second battle of Fallujah, considered the hottest point of conflict of all the military campaign in Iraq. Led by the US Marine Corp against the Iraqi combatants, who had held the city under their control, some consider it was the most difficult battle marines have been involved since Vietnam in the 60s. The battle put end to the insurgent control over the city and constituted an important victory for the US troops, however such victory had a high painful price 1.

Deceased philosopher Bertrand Russell once said, “War does not determine who is right- only who is left”. Those left are the soldiers of the 1-502nd, specifically Bravo Company 1st plt, and the Janabi family and to a greater extent, the ever-changing global world we all live in today. The tragic events that conspired in a small Iraqi village became a microcosm of how leadership failures at every level shaped the actions of a few soldiers who committed atrocious acts. One can also see how a high operational tempo, along with prolonged violence and death, has on a person’s psyche. It is the ugly side of war that the average American citizen may not want to hear or talk about. For a soldier, it is inevitably what they train their

Then, United Somalia Congress divide into multiple clans which escalate the turmoil through inter-clan warfare. Such warfare destroyed the economy, and left hundreds of thousands of Somalians to perish of starvation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine a historical battle and apply the four steps of battle analysis to provide an alternate outcome. This paper will define the battle, review the settings, describe the actions, and assess the significance of the actions for Operation Ivory Coast. The operation took place during 1971 in Northern Vietnam by United States Special Forces operators. The

soldiers were killed. The U.S won the battle, but lost the war. Sure the U.S helped feed millions of people for a certain period of time, but overall the intervention turned out to be unsuccessful because once they left, starvation would soon hit Somalia once again. The Somali leader and the main instigator of starvation was not arrested, many innocent people were killed and when the U.S withdrew its troops, 18 soldiers' lives were lost in vain because their mission was not accomplished with their deaths.

The events of the film are based solely on facts obtained from military historians and survivors. However, there are critics who say that Black Hawk Down is a “one-sided” film, meaning it does not give credit to the Somali militia men who perished. According to the book American History and Contemporary Hollywood Film, “From the perspective of Mogadishu’s civilian residents, the ‘firefight’ was actually a massacre perpetrated by the Americans. Not only is this viewpoint given no airing in the film, but the deaths of the Somalis are also treated in an entirely different manner.” (McCrisken and Pepper 192) In other words, while the Americans were shown in the film dying tragically the Somalis just fall down. This is one of the very few criticisms of the film, that it doesn’t show the loss of Somali women and children with respect or showcase the fact that many of them were simply attempting to protect their

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

Black Hawk Down, directed by Ridley Scott, is a war film that illustrates the true story of the Battle of Mogadishu. The intent of this essential operation to the United States was to capture the Somalian warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidi. The film begins by introducing us to an audacious group of Delta Force soldiers, Army Rangers, and helicopter pilots. As the film develops, the original plan to capture Aidi is changed to a mission of survival when two american helicopters are brought down. The U.S. took action in Somalia by trying to restore order after American soldiers and members of the U.N were targeted by the country’s militia. The destruction that the Somali militia had brought was shown through footage of food deprived and starving Somali

In August 1993 US soldiers faced fire from armed clans and the two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down. As a response, Clinton augmented American troop presence, in an attempt to keep peace and track down a warlord (Mohamed Farah Aideed) the first responsible for the chaos. This decision resulted in the killing of 18 soldiers in the Battle of Mogadishu, dozens wounded, and the bodies of the dead desecrated in the streets. The mission rapidly lost popularity with the American people. In the face of significant political opposition, Clinton finally withdrew all U.S. forces in March 1994. This fruitless intervention was at the heart of the Clinton administration's refusal to act in Rwanda the following month in its bloody civil war.

Aidid intercepted the food that was sent there for his starving people in the country, and he kept it for himself and a select few. It should have been used to feed the many starving people in his country which would have resulted in a greater number of people being helped. His followers also had no mercy for the starving families there. They were willing to shoot anyone who attempted to take food away from the truck when they were transporting it to Aidid. They did whatever they could to get food to Aidid even if it meant harming other people. Three hundred thousand people died because Aidid would not seek the greatest good for the greatest number of people in his country. The people of Somalia also lost a lot of rights. They lost their rights to food that was given to them. They lost their right to not starve. And they lost their right to live in a safe