Blackhawk Down: Hollywood V. Reality

In 1992 Us forces were sent to Somalia to help quell the unrest that decades of civil war had parented. The centuries old feud between clans had come to a head with the dissolution of the formal government in 1991, and the refusal of several clan leaders refusing to accept the new head of government as president. The resulting war ended almost all agricultural production and famine on a massive scale. After at least 300,000 Somali's died from starvation the UN sent in a peacekeeping force to aid in the distribution of food, grain, medical supplies, and other humanitarian aid, called UN Operation Somalia   or UNOSOM I the peacekeepers were limited to self defense role only and were constantly in fear as gunmen would fire on them from within crowds knowing that the UN forces would not and could not return fire or try to capture them. Eventually when this force could not quell the fighting Operation Restore Hope was launched in December 1992 consisting of US and UN multinational forces this force, UNOSOM II was an effective deterrent to the Somali’s in general and in May of 1993 President Clinton ordered the US Marines and most of the US Army out of Somalia.
The main clan leader the despised the foreign influence and saw them as a threat was General Mohamed Farrah Aidid of the United Somali Congress, in response to UNOSOM’s continued presence Aidid ordered the attack on a UN Peacekeeping force in which 24 Pakistanis were killed and their bodies mutilated and hung in the city streets of Mogadishu Somalia’s capital and Aidid controlled territory. The attack was decried in international circles and was to reason for UN Resolution 837 which called for the arrest and trial of Aidid and those responsible for the attack dubbed Operation Gothic Serpent. President Clinton ordered a detachment of rangers and Delta Force operators to the area and tasked them with the capture or killing of Aidid in an effort to end the bloodshed. While the UN/US forces ended with a tactical...