"The film Black Hawk Down is helping to create a new myth of American nationhood." -UK Newspaper

Published in the Guardian 29th January 2002 ^ | Published in the Guardian 29th January 2002 | By George Monbiot

[Texas_Jarhead]

I love how the author mentions President Bush but then conveniently omits any mention of Bill Clinto only stating that the US handed over daministration to the UN in 1993.

[Faraday]

Most Americans do honestly believe that the circumstances portrayed in Blackhawk Down did victimize us ... but we were victimized by Bill Clinton, not a foreign power.

Yes. But I would add that Aidid had ties with al Qaeda. Of course, the Guardian puke wouldn't be interested. Finally, let Black Hawk Down serve as a warning that we have a military force that will take out enemies at a ratio of better than 100 to 1 in a (for us) worst-case-scenario. And we're not allowing those scenarios under the current President.

[South Dakota]

Ah yes the santimonious british. Taking about atrocities committed on their people and forgeting the atrocities they committed on others. Take the statement about the Indian mutiny. Golly mr sanctimonious, did England take india by force and these people were striving to be free?You had no legal claim to their country so why was it a mutiny? Say what about the Boers, the Irish, Scotland?

[cabral]

LOL! Yes we need a super barf alert for this one..

[spetznaz]

When did we bomb Somalia?

Some time before the ill fated raid depicted in Black Hawk Down several US Cobra helicopters carried out a raid in a hotel, where they fired their missiles at the occupants who were having a meeting. The problem here is that the occupants were chosen members of the clans that were in opposition to Aideed and were meeting that day to discuss methods of usurping or negating Aideed's influence in Mogadishu.

And guess who was president when this attack was authorized? Bill Clinton! Yet interestingly this article does not mention his name, just G.H.W.B! I find that weird ...but anyway i digress......

However the Cobra attack in one fell swoop eradicated the only feasibly real domestic opposition Aideed faced and allowed him to churn up the crowds against the states even more. Some have claimed that is one of the main reasons even women and other (normally, even for Somalia) non-combatants came out firing at the fallen Deltas and Rangers. Aideed (like the tyranical demagogue he is) had made everyone see the US as demonic oppresors, and thanks to stupid intelligence (obviously from people in suits chilling in Washington) our Cobras had blown the guys who might have made the carnage have a lesser magnitude (obviously Aideed's guys would still have tried to kill our valiant soldiers, but it would not have been the whole of Mogadishu grabbing Kalashnikovs and RPGs and training them on our guys). And although the Aideed militia, as well as pockets of al Queda would still have attacked our forces, that would have been better than to have virtually thousands shooting off at you in the dark (even if they are horrid shots thousands of guns means a greater likelihood one bullet may get you ina vital spot). Hence there would still ave been some sort of attack (carried out by Aideed's militia and the smattering of al Queda forces that were in Mogadishu then ....the guys believed to have used the 'tinkered' RPGs that brought down the Black Hwaks), but the thousands of swarming Somalis may have been avoided.

Thus essentially you could say that the silly missile attack on the Mogadishu hotel that killed the opposition people comprised a technical 'bombing' of Somalia in a sense (not in the magnitude of Iraq, but it still led to other factors getting involved later on that led to the death of more US soldiers than was necessary).

Personally i think one of the good things that arose from Somalia is that from then on battlefield commanders had more authority over their men than the 'suits' sitting in an air conditioned office in Washington DC playing 'Battleship' with American lives.

[rmlew]

You are completely wrong here. The Guardian is the paper of the anti-colonialist (its all our fault destroy Britain) left.

[bok]

Australian: Eric Bana .... Delta Sergeant 1st Class Norm "Hoot" Hooten

Scottish: Ewan McGregor .... Specialist Danny Grimes

British: Jason Isaacs .... Captain Mike Steele

Scottish: Ewen Bremner .... Specialist Shawn Nelson

British: Hugh Dancy .... Delta Medic Sergeant 1st Class Kurt Schmid

British: Tom Hardy (I) .... Specialist Lance Twombly (as Thomas Hardy)

British: Matthew Marsden .... Specialist Dale Sizemore

British: Orlando Bloom .... Private 1st Class Todd Blackburn

Danish: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau .... Delta Master Sergeant Gary Gordon

Canadian: Kim Coates .... Master Sergeant Tim "Griz" Martin

Welsh: Ian Virgo .... Specialist John Waddell

Welsh: Ioan Gruffudd .... 2nd Lieutenant John Beales

Czech: Pavel Voukan .... Chief Warrant Officer Donovan 'Bull' Briley (as Pavel Vokoun0

[Madcelt]

Mega barf..MEGA BARF.....GOD HELP US ITS SWALLOWING THE PLANET BARF ALERT!!!!

[Valin]

Ah say George, IF what you've written is true it might be a good idea for you to keep a low profile. Not that I'm suggesting that anything bad could happen to you, because frankly you're just not that important or worth the trouble.
But you never know.




Was that a helicopter I heard?

[Pharmboy]

These lefty Brits are soooo sick about not running the world since the 19th century. Ef 'em--jealous tossers the lot of 'em.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

Just another rant from a communist British toilet-mouth. Perhaps he will next review "Saving Private Ryan" (told from only the US perspective and showing the Germans as quite evil and soul-less) and extol the virtues of Hitler's Germany.

I don't think this panzy has ever come to terms with who won the Revolutionary War.

[PsyOp]

As I recall, it was our good friend in the UN Kofi Anan (?spl) who was in charge of telling us who the good guys and bad guys were, and who dragged us into the country to begin with (I recall the Bush sr. was accused of being racist when he showed reluctance to get involved). As it turns out Kofi was using us to grind his own political axes in that country.

As for the missle attack, I recall hearing that we were deliberately fed misinformation, presumably by Aidid's people or the UN through Kofi.

The author of this tripe leaves out the fact that the gunmen used women and children as human shields to close with our soldiers.

He leaves out the every day attrocities we were trying to prevent.

He leaves out the hijacking of food relief by Somalis (I believe it was Aidid who stated that "food is a Weapon").

He leaves out the fact that the entire city was NOT against us, just select clans.

He leaves out the lack of UN cooperation on the ground (Pakistanis and relief workers).

He leaves out the fact that the people we were fighting were being armed and supported, it turns out, by Al Queda.

And so on.

This article is more significant for what it fails to mention that what it does.

[Leisler]

"Others (wounded Rangers) were cool, even hostile. Sgt. John Burns, 26, of Philadelphia, whose leg was shattered, balked at an offer to have his picture taken with the president. "I don't want to end up in some political propaganda picture - you know, 'President Visits Wounded Soldier,' " Burns said while Clinton was in his room.

The White House refused ( not because they didn't have any, but because the reception of the soldiers to Buba was so hostile )to make public photographs or television footage of that meeting or a later Oval Office meeting with the wounded. ( notice that they did have the cammeras going just in case they could edit something) Clinton and top administration officials responsible for Somalia have yet to be publicly shown with the survivors of the fiercest firefight in terms of American casualties since Vietnam. Some administration officials say withholding the pictures is part of a damage-limitation strategy devised by David Gergen, Clinton's adviser.( So dead or busted up, the men were just props to Gergen. )

"They [White House officials] hope people will forget about Somalia," said a Pentagon official who objected to a plan. He favored giving the wounded the sort of White House South Lawn ceremony held in June when Clinton praised and personally decorated Marines who were first sent to Somalia by President George Bush last Dec. 6.

While Gergen refused to comment, another White House official said Clinton wanted to avoid the appearance of exploiting the Somalia veterans."( Even though he was. )

[Paulus Invictus]

The facts: The Malasian armored column did come in to rescue our guys, but they arrived far later than planned. Then they drove right by the very guys they came to save and our troops actually had to run after the tanks and APC's all the way back to safety. It's in the book.

[lawdog]

The Brits could really teach us "sooo much". Look at he bang up job they have done like the "peace" they have brought to Ireland . We didn't go to Somalia to build "our empire". Those soldiers in Somalia suffered because of the criminal and gross negligent "leadership" of Blair's buddy, Clinton.Those casualties are tragically just part of the TRUE Clinton legacy!

[lawdog]

Oops. Look at "the" ...