| Subject: Black Hawk Down story |
Author:
Gunner
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Date Posted: 02:09:24 01/24/02 Thu
STORY,click here
President George Bush sent in about 26,000 U.S. troops in Somalia to help distribute food and other needs to the civilians. Once President William Clinton came into office he immediately set out to bring the soldiers home. The numbers above represent US troops peak strength. After Clinton cut them in 1993 there were only some 4,000 left. In addition to the US troops there were also some 20,000 UN troops but they did not take part in the fighting so I did not bother to add their numbers. American forces had some Cobra attack helicopters, but were lacking heavy armor to patrol the streets. This would prove to be a costly mistake.
The numbers above only represent the losses suffered by Gen. Aidid's forces and they are low estimates. The battle of Mogadishu is given two estimates, a low of 700 of Aidids men killed plus another 300 civilians killed giving a total of 1,000 deaths, and the high estimate of the battle of some 2,000 deaths with more than half of those being civilians. Ambassador Robert Oakley, the US special representative to Somalia, believes the true number is around 1,000 deaths.
The ambush and deaths of 25 Pakistani soldiers is what made the United States go after Aidid. Soon afterwards small skirmishes broke out. A HUMMVV was destroyed by a mine killing 4 American soldiers in it. In retaliation Aidid's headquarters were attacked.
The casualties sustained in Somalia could have been avoided if the military had a clear objective and the politicians in Washington would have given them a free hand. The first thing that went wrong is that Somalia was labeled a peace mission and thus the soldiers were lightly equipped. One month before the ambush in Mogadishu Gen. Montgomery asked for some weapons, 4 tanks, 13 APC's, and some artillery pieces. He was denied because President Clinton did not want to escalate things. Well, once the ambush took place the American troops were ill equipped to send in a rescue team, in fact troops from Malaysia brought their APC's to bring out the wounded. That battle cost the lives of 18 Americans. Afterwards Gen. Thomas received some 31 tanks, 48 APC's, and 8 artillery pieces. President Clinton, however, was still blamed. The father of a Ranger killed in Mogadishu refused to shake Clinton's hand after he received a medal for his son's bravery in battle. Some wounded soldiers refused to get their pictures taken with Clinton when he visited them.
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