[zipper]

Clinton inherited Somalia from Pres. Bush 41

Actually true, though that tells only a small part of the story. Started as peace-keeping, morphed into nation-building, ended in retreat.

The special ops raid on Mohammed Farah Aideed's lieutenants was after Clinton took over. His SECDEF Les Aspin denied the commanders their requests for gunships and APCs, because the Clinton administration didn't want to appear to be escalating the hostilities. The result was the disaster that resulted in 18 dead, 30 wounded. Afterwards we pulled out following an initial show of force, which left an impression of the USA being a 'paper tiger' to its enemies.

This was the first employment of Al-Queda tactics against U.S. forces in combat -- the use of RPGs against helicopters.

[stylin19a]

thanks...trust me, I do understand. I remember the whole sorry situation.
Just like nobody blames Truman for Vietnam, but he’s the one that got us started there.

[CRBDeuce]

"His SECDEF Les Aspin denied the commanders their requests for gunships and APCs AND ammo, because the Clinton administration didn't want to appear to be escalating the hostilities." The Obama administration appears fully capable of repeating that trick! With any luck, our troops have prepared for that contingency (along with others that our Kangaroo Kongress may dream up).