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They were there because President Clinton ordered them to help feed people who were starving to death in that country.

This is where I stopped reading. Clinton did not order them there - Bush did. If the author cannot get that one fact straight than guess what? The article is crapola.

Actually, Clinton did order them there, did he not? Bush ordered the original contingent of Marines to go in and secure the food supply and then they departed to let the UN take over peacekeeping duties. It was only after the warlords attacked the peacekeepers that Clinton sent the Rangers and 10th Mountain et al back to take out Aidid.

Actually G. Bush Sr. ordered the Marines in to feed the Somalians late in his administration. He pulled them out when their mission was complete and the U.N. was to take over.

Then, the U.N. started nation-building. When peace-keepers started getting killed, Clinton sent in special-ops people along with Rangers to get the warlords that weren't cooperating with the U.N. vision of a coalition gov't. That's when things went to sh*t for the Americans. One part of the book "Blackhawk Down" describes the Italian U.N. peacekeepers, some still in league with their former Somali colonial subjects, would use their truck headlights to signal the Somali warlords when the US troops suited up for a mission.

Nation building is and continues to be a disaster for the U.S. military, every time. However, the author is utterly clueless because he can't differentiate the reason why we're in Afghanistan vs. why we were in Somalia. The Somalis didn't kill 3000+ Americans our own country!