The Legacy of Black Hawk Down (Oct. 3, 1993)

[NewYorkerfromMass]

The following excerpts are from an op-ed in Friday's NYTimes written by Kenneth L. Cain, who was a United Nations human rights officer in Somalia at the time.

"....When the Clinton administration took office, it promised that the United States would practice "assertive multilateralism." It was a heady moment: the promise of a new world order seemed real to my generation at the United Nations. We were true believers — we were going to spend the peace dividend, export democracy, enforce human rights. The phrase "never again" would mean something at last...

...I'm awed and sad and angry. The day before, in a speech we read word for word here, President Clinton said that if we pull out now, "All around the world, aggressors, thugs and terrorists will conclude that the best way to get us to change our policies is to kill our people. It would be open season on Americans." But then he announced that we would pull out by March. Which is it?"

So I must ask.....who put the pressure on Clinton to pull out?

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/03/opinion/03CAIN.html?pagewanted=print&position=

[greenwow]

1. Clinton was probably disgusted by how many...

civilians our thugs killed. According to one thing I read, the thugs killed over two thousand Somali civilians. I know he was disgusted by the actions of our troops. I still can't believe those killers didn't end-up in prison for their actions. Indiscriminately killing civilians is a crime.

[mddemo]

2. civilians

yeah all those guys were civilians, none of them had weapons, the rangers just walked around the streets dragging people out and executing them, get real.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

3. Then that was Colin Powell's fault

If we suspend disbelief for a moment and assume they were on an indiscriminate civilian killing spree, then Powell should have had the mission objectives more in line with the methods.