john9001: Mogadishu, thats where a handfull of special forces killed about a thousand somollies.
miko: For no apparent purpose.
Martlet: not apparent to you, anyway. Try informing yourself. If you have trouble, ask. Someone will gladly fill you in.
I gladly accept your offer to enlighten me. Let me review the degree extent of my ignorance and misapprehension so that you know where to start.
We decided to go to Somali to arrest or kill a single person Mohamed Farrah Aidid who was apparently doing what hundreds of thousands of warlords do in third-world countries every day - engaged in low-intensity internecine warfare.
We failed in that prupose, lost some troops and equipment and killed a lot of peasants to improve our statistics.
Aidid was not affectied in the least by loosing a few hundred peasants since one thing such places have in abundance are pesants. In fact, I believe Aidid must have had real trpuble sending away all the volunteers willing to serve him after he defeated the mighty USA and threw it out of his country.
The situation in Somali is no worths and no betteer than if we had removed Aidid or if we never came there art all.
Besides a spectacular filming of the massive amphibious assault by US marines against a beach filled with reporters, what purpose was accomplished by killing those peasants?
miko