Monday, May 24, 2010
Black Hawk Down
I recently watched the movie Black Hawk Down, which is a story of the Somali Civil War in the early 1990's and the US involvement. The movie is focussed on one major battle of the War, when America's Delta Force, Army Rangers, and the 160th SOAR are sent into Mogadishu to recover the warlord that controls the city and is the leader of the rebel army, named Mohamed Farrah Aidid. Aidid seizes convoys bringing food to the starving Somalians, and eventually over 300,000 Somalians starve. The mission overall was supposed to take about 3 weeks, but actually took about 6. The main raid of the city resulted in over 1000 Somalian casualties and 19 American soldier casualties. This very unsuccessful raid resulted in American angst about their involvement in overseas affairs. I know we've been talking a lot in class about what the US could have done in Rwanda, because of the genocide taking place there and the lack of assistance the Rwandans received and this movie made me think about what would've happened. Though I personally believed that US should have intervened in the crisis, it is difficult to know the outcome. It could have been highly successful such as other times where the US has become involved in overseas affairs, or it could've been highly unsuccessful such as the raid on Mogadishu. This may have been a contributing factor as to why the US was hesitant to aid the Rwandans in their time of need.
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Although I agree that this was a factor contributing as to why the US did not aid Rwanda, I do not think it had the most influence over the decision. When we discussed this topic in class, we paid close attention to the level of "interest" and benefits the US would gain in return of aiding Rwanda. Unfortunately, risking a few american lives was not worth saving thousands of others. In addition, Rwanda did not have anything to benefit from. It was a weak country and would not make a useful ally, and there was no economic benefit such as oil to get as there is in Iraq. I think that the government considered the benefits before anything, and then decided if that was worth sending in troops.
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