We Are Without Excuse

Unlearned lessons from Mogadishu

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Iraq is Somalia on a much more massive scale. As a result, the cost and consequence of America's misguided and failed policy will be immeasurably more grievous. In Iraq, as was the case in Somalia, the war was lost before the first shot was fired.

On October 3rd, 1993, in one of the most visual incidents of Islamic terrorism ever captured on film, Muslim militants in Mogadishu, Somalia, shot down two Black Hawk helicopters. Americans had been deployed in Somalia by George H.W. Bush on a highly politicized humanitarian mission in league with the United Nations called "Restore Hope." In addition to deposing the ruling regime, they were trying to do the impossible: stabilize the failed Islamic state, restore order, and prevent mass starvation in a land corrupted in Islam.

As a direct result of Muslims rejecting humanitarian offers of life, liberty, and prosperity, 18 U.S. soldiers were killed. Most of them died trying to rescue their fallen comrades. Several Americans had their bodies mutilated and dragged through the streets as if they were a prize. The very people these soldiers were there to liberate and to free, murdered them in what could only be called a frenzied celebration of death. This was an unfortunately predictable display of Islam's corruptive nature and the traditions inspired in Allah's tales of torture.

There was a moral to the story, one not yet learned: men and women infected with Islam cannot be helped until the disease is removed. These 18 tragic deaths should have been sufficient to prevent over 30,000 American casualties in Iraq, more than 3,000 of whom sacrificed their lives making a bad situation worse.

American troops stationed in Iraq a decade later wouldn't have bled and died for nothing had Americans honored those lost in Somalia sufficiently to learn why their supreme sacrifice had been in vain. While the men and women in uniform were heroic, their mission was impossible. America's political leadership failed them, just as it is failing those bleeding and dying in Iraq today. No matter when the U.S. leaves Iraq, Muslim clerics will control the nation, making the country what it was not before: a clear and present danger.

Islam is incompatible with the human values of life, liberty, and prosperity America was trying to establish in Somalia and is trying to establish in Iraq. So long as Islam is tolerated in these places, the people cannot be helped. Americans should not be sacrificed in pursuit of a winless war or failed political policies. That was the lesson of October 3rd, 1993.

The men who lost their lives in Somalia, and those whose bodies were ravaged in Mogadishu by the Muslim mobs deserve nothing less than for us to learn from the ordeal that plagued them. In their honor, I have compiled the following review using sources affiliated with the U.S. Army. Click here to go the US Army's website, if you would like to read their report.

Under United Nations command, coalition forces from France, Italy, Belgium, Morocco, Australia, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Canada joined U.S. troops in Somalia in 1991 through 1993. During the course of Operation Restore Hope, 38,000 soldiers from 23 nations, and representatives from 50 humanitarian relief operations, tried to work together to put food into the mouths of starving Somalis. But they were thwarted by Islam. A rivalry between feuding Islamic warlords, particularly between the Muslim militias of General Muhammed Aideed of the Habr Gidr clan and Ali Mahdi Mohamed of the Abgal tribe made delivering food and medicine a deadly affair. Their feud added to the tragedy of Somalia, because in their civil war, hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians perished.

There were ample warning signs on the horizon, UN diplomats ignored them and began to press for a political solution - one which called for the establishment of a UN supervised government. "Mission creep" began to enter the vocabulary of American troops serving in Somalia as the humanitarian mission became politicized.

Then to add insult to injury, during the outgoing Bush and incoming Clinton administrations, the United States relinquished control, acquiescing to the United Nations' agenda. A bad situation quickly worsened. The Council on Foreign Relations, and their stooges, Bush, Clinton, and the United Nations, were about to demonstrate their incompetence.

Turkish Lt. General Cevik Bir was appointed commander of the U.N. forces. U.S. Army Maj. General Thomas Montgomery became his deputy. This meant that American troops were inserted into the U.N. chain of command. It was the first of many deadly decisions.

The event that precipitated the transforming of a humanitarian mission into a political failure occurred on June 5th, 1993. Aideed's Somalia National Alliance militia ambushed and killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, wounding 44, as they tried to take a radio station off the air. In retaliation, the following day, the United Nations Security Council approved a more aggressive military stance toward Aideed, asking member states for more troops and equipment. The United States complied with the U.N. request. But Clinton, wanting the U.S. troops to be seen as "peacemakers" rather than "warriors" prohibited the transport or use of American armored personnel carriers or tanks. As a direct result of this decision, the blood of 18 U.S. troops stains his hands.

Pakistani, Italian, and Malaysian forces, unlike the Americans, were equipped with armor - American-made armored personnel carriers and tanks. They began conducting patrols throughout Mogadishu, concentrating on the areas near the ambush site. Knowing that his troops were vulnerable, U.S. General Hoar ultimately convinced the Joint Staff to send four Air Force AC-130 gunships, special C-130 cargo planes modified with large guns, to support unarmored patrols and to carry out air strikes against the Somali jihadists.

The Hercules gunships flew 30 interdiction, reconnaissance, and PSYOP (psychological warfare operations) missions in support of the U.N.'s political objectives. Eight of those missions were combat sorties flown over the streets of Mogadishu. Each manufactured many more enemy combatants than they killed. These aircraft used their 105-mm and 40-mm cannons to demolish buildings thought to be weapons storage facilities and to further cripple Radio Mogadishu. Additional AC-130 missions targeted vehicle compounds belonging to Aideed and his supporters.

On June 17th Admiral Howe issued a warrant for Aideed's arrest. He also authorized a $25,000 reward for his capture. This only served to make things worse. Infighting between U.N. (Muslim troops) sympathetic to the Islamic warlord, and the U.S. didn't help. Then in a direct challenge to Aideed's leadership, American forces attacked one of Aideed's compounds with helicopter gunships. After the raid, a hostile crowd killed four western journalists covering the action. They would later display their mangled corpses for the world to see.

America, as it would later do less than a decade later with Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had personalized the source of its pain. The nation was blinded to the actual problem - the source of the aggression. So coalition forces focused all of their energy on locating and arresting Aideed and his supporters rather than deal with the underlying problem of Islam.

As a direct result of this error, one repeated with Saddam Hussein in Iraq, U.S. Task Force 3-25 Aviation established three teams to conduct operations to capture Aideed. They were named: Team Attack, Team Snatch, and Team Secure. Composed of attack, scout, and cargo helicopters with snipers and a scout platoon, they were to conduct continuous intelligence surveillance of Aideed, leading to an attack on his escort convoy when he was traveling around the city and most vulnerable. Team Attack would destroy the lead and trail vehicles, Team Snatch would then capture Aideed. Team Secure would provide ground security by occupying blocking positions to prevent civilians from entering while keeping the targeted individuals confined to the ambush site. However, Aideed began lowering his profile and was seldom seen moving around.

The Islamic warlord did not take this personal threat to him casually. On August 8th Muslim militants on his payroll detonated an IED (remote-controlled Improvised Explosive Device) under a passing U.S. Military Police vehicle in Mogadishu. They killed four U.S. MPs. The same tactic would be played out in Iraq, killing 400 times more men.

As the military situation worsened, the U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali made another personal plea to the administration of President Bill Clinton, again asking the U.S. to assist him in capturing Aideed. So on August 22nd 1993, Secretary of Defense Les Aspin sent a special operations task force (JSOTF) to Somalia. The JSOTF, named Task Force Ranger, had the mission of capturing Aideed and his key lieutenants and turning them over to the U.N. forces.

That job would prove extraordinarily difficult, because Aideed was a Muslim surrounded by Muslims in a land where not being a Muslim was a death sentence. His situation was not unlike bin Laden's in Pakistan where turning in the Islamic hero would be considered an act of treason. Aideed alluded his pursuers by alternating between the homes of fellow Muslims once AC-130 air raids and ground assaults on his strongholds made living in them dangerous.

All major elements of Task Force Ranger were in Somalia by late August. They consisted of special operations ground forces, special operations helicopters, U.S. Air Force special tactics personnel, and U.S. Navy Seals - everything but armor. During September 1993, TFR conducted six missions into Mogadishu, all of which were tactical successes. Although in one instance, the task force members mistakenly raided an unlisted U.N. facility and temporarily restrained some U.N. employees.

During a raid near the Digfer Hospital on September 21st, Osman Atto, Aideed's chief financial aide, was captured. The abduction operation went smoothly, but in their retreat, U.S. Rangers received massed rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) fire from Somali militia for the first time. The Muslim gunmen had been trained to fire at the tail rotors of the support helicopters, their most vulnerable appendage. Furthermore, these jihadists were now showing a greater overall willingness to engage the Rangers with small arms and rocket fire.

In one of the most violent incidents, U.S. and Pakistani soldiers were clearing roadblocks when they were attacked by Somali militia using 106-mm. guns, RPGs, and assault rifles. Later that same day, near an abandoned allied checkpoint, this team was again attacked by militiamen, this time joined by a mob of approximately 1,000 Somali civilians, most armed to the teeth. Six UN soldiers were injured in that raid.

On September 25th, a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter was shot down and three soldiers were killed. American troops secured the area and evacuated their dead under heavy fire. Particularly unsettling was the fact that the Somalis shot down the helicopter using an RPG, a weapon normally used to attack unarmored vehicles. The tail rotor was indeed vulnerable. This fact did not bode well for future helicopter missions, especially since they were being used in lieu of deploying armored personnel carriers.

On October 3rd, the Rangers launched their seventh mission, this time into the so-called "Black Sea Slum" near the Bakara Market. Their plan was to capture two of Aideed's lieutenants. Helicopters carrying assault forces launched at 3:30 in the afternoon from Mogadishu's airport on the periphery of town. A ground convoy moved out a few minutes later. By 3:42 the ground forces had arrived at their target, a building near the Olympic Hotel. The blocking force quickly established perimeter positions while the assault force searched the compound for Aideed's supporters. Both came under heavy militia fire; this time much more intense than on previous raids.

The assault team captured twenty-four Somalis and was about to load them onto their trucks when a circling MH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was hit by an RPG. It crashed three blocks away. Immediately, six men who were part of the blocking force went to the scene in hopes of rescuing their fallen comrades. They were joined by a small MH-6 assault helicopter and a modified Black Hawk carrying a fifteen-man combat search and rescue squad. The MH-6 crew arrived first, and demonstrating great bravery and skill, they landed in a narrow alley in the middle of the ensuing firefight. The crew evacuated two wounded soldiers to a military hospital.

The six-man Ranger blocking contingent arrived on foot, followed by the other Black Hawk helicopter carrying the search and rescue team. As the last two members of the fifteen-man squad were sliding down the fast ropes to the crash site, their helicopter was hit by another RPG. While the pilot kept the aircraft hovering until they reached the ground, the last man down the rope was injured. And with the helicopter wounded, the crew had no choice but to fly it back to the airport.

The Americans were vulnerable, so armed Muslims flooded to the crash site by the hundreds and then thousands. They shot and struck two more MH-60s, with one going down less than a mile away while the other limped back to the airport. Almost instantaneously, an armed Somali mob overran the second crash site, and despite a heroic defense, killed everyone except one of the pilots, whom they took prisoner. Two defenders, Gary Gordon and Randall Shughart were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for their sacrifice.

After loading the Aideed's detainees into trucks, the remaining assault and blocking forces moved on foot to the first crash site, passing through heavy fire from the enormous mob of armed civilians. Several more Americans were wounded. Ducking for cover in buildings southwest of the downed helicopter, U.S. troops established defensive positions. They laid down suppressive fire to hold the Somalis at bay. These brave soldiers treated their wounded while working to free the surviving pilot's body from the wreckage.

Taking a different route, the ground convoy force with its detainees attempted to reach the first crash site from the north. Unable to find it among the narrow alleyways, they came under withering small arms and RPG fire. Finally, after suffering numerous casualties, losing two 5-ton trucks, and sustaining substantial damage to the other vehicles, the convoy's commander decided to return to the relative safety of the airfield.

On the way, the returning troops ran into a second convoy of Ranger and Special Forces soldiers who had just left the airport in hopes of reaching the site of the second crash. That rescue team loaded some of the casualties of the first convoy onto their vehicles and then they both returned to base. At this time, the U.S. Quick Response Force for the UN, and another U.S. Army unit, tried to reach the second crash site. However, they failed because these troops were pinned down by the enormous mobs of Muslim militants who had poured out of their homes to engage the infidels and punch their ticket to Allah's brothel. After a tough, dismounted firefight, the commander was compelled to move his outgunned force back to the safety of the airport. For the want of some tanks and armored personnel carriers, good men were dying.

The Rangers at the first crash site were now running short on critical supplies. They received water and ammunition from a helicopter drop that evening, but during this mission the delivery vehicle, an unarmored MH-60, was also hit by RPGs and barely managed to power back to the airport.

A relief column was slowly being formed at the airport and another at the New Port area of Mogadishu. But it took far too long to assemble the necessary tanks and armored vehicles because the only American armor was under the command of the Muslim Pakistani and Malaysian forces. At Bill Clinton's direction, armored personnel carriers, the most essential tool in urban combat, were missing from the American arsenal. U.S. troops had to go begging to save their own.

Finally, early the following morning, after a wasted afternoon and evening, a sixty-vehicle convoy moved out of the New Port area with Pakistani (American made) tanks in the lead. They were followed by armored personnel carriers, Cobra gunships, UH-60s, and reconnaissance OH-58A helicopters. As the convoy moved sporadically toward the crash sites, two of the Malaysian armored personnel carriers with U.S. Army soldiers inside turned the wrong direction in the chaos and were ambushed by an angry Muslim mob. Trying to save their own lives, these men moved into the cover of nearby buildings. It would be four hours before the would-be rescuers were rescued.

The rest of the convoy continued toward the first crash site. Army forces in the Malaysian (American made) armored personnel carriers broke through at 1:55 AM on October 4th. The Ranger Special Forces had worked until dawn to free the pilot's body, receiving grenade and small arms fire throughout the night. Close fire support by AH-4 and AH-1 attack helicopters, in some instances firing small rockets, helped keep the Muslim mujahideen at bay during this time.

When the Infantry, less its lost platoon, reached the second crash site, there was no trace of the lost soldiers or aviators. As dawn broke, the casualties from the first crash site were loaded onto the borrowed personnel carriers and the rest of the team moved on foot in what became known as the "Mogadishu Mile." Even in the rescue, there were too few armored vehicles to carry Americans out of harm's way.

With the vehicles providing some cover, the run-and-gun escape began at 5:42 in the morning. Muslim mobs continued firing at them while U.S. helicopter gunships fired back. The main force arrived at a stadium in the northeast section of the city around 6:30. Medical personnel treated the wounded, and all wounded Americans were prepared for transit to the hospital on the airfield. Thus ended America's bloodiest urban firefight since the Vietnam War.

The Rangers lost 16 men and had another 57 wounded - some very badly. Another Ranger was killed and 12 more were wounded two days later by a mortar attack on their hangar at the airport. The Infantry lost two American soldiers and suffered 22 casualties. Various estimates placed Somali dead at around 1,500 during the 15-hour assault.

In the aftermath of the Muslim militia attacks on the U.S. military personnel who had been sent to Somalia to help free and feed those killing them, troop strength increased significantly, although temporarily. Too little and too late, Bradley fighting vehicles along with MI Abrams tanks were sent to protect the American GIs. These protective assets were augmented by additional AC-130 gunships.

It soon became clear that the Clinton administration was focused on using the additional force to facilitate the withdrawal of U.S. troops rather than punish the Muslims who had murdered the 23 Americans. General Montgomery had clear guidance from Clinton: protect the force, protect the UN, and bring the troops out with a minimum of casualties. The winless war had been lost.

While it was the right move, albeit too late, the consequence was grievous. Muslim militants the world over now knew that they could successfully fight America. It wasn't a matter of technology or training, but instead indoctrination. A sufficient number of Muslims corrupted with Allah's orders and Muhammad's example, could terrorize the West into submission so long as they were brutal and willing to die. It is the lesson America will experience once again in Iraq. It is unavoidable.

In a national security policy review session held in the White House on October 6th 1993, the president directed the acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to stop all actions by U.S. forces against Aideed except those required in self-defense. He also reappointed Ambassador Oakley as special envoy to Somalia to broker a peace settlement. As part of it, he announced that all U.S. forces would withdraw. Shortly thereafter Secretary Aspin stepped down, taking much of the blame for Bush's and Clinton's failed policy. As would happen in Iraq a decade later, misguided and immoral politicians squandered the lives of America's best making the situation worse.

Ambassador Oakley arrived in Mogadishu on October 9th, determined to obtain the release of U.S. helicopter pilot Michael Durant. He had been captured at the second crash site by Muslim militias paid by Aideed. The Islamic warlord agreed to release the wounded Durant and a previously captured Nigerian soldier on October 14th. Despite this "goodwill gesture" it quickly became apparent that Somalia would remain in the death grip of this tyrant and his clan, sliding ever backwards into disorder and anarchy.

Iraq is Somalia on a much more massive scale. As a result, the cost and consequence of America's misguided and failed policy in Iraq will be immeasurably more grievous. America's politicians are right when they say that the consequence of failure there will be horrific, but they are wrong in continuing to fight the battle. In Iraq, as it was in Somalia, the battle was lost before the first shot was fired.

The only way for America to win the war in Iraq would be to kill every Muslim in the Middle East. Since that isn't going to happen, and shouldn't happen, bring the troops home before more die making a bad situation worse.

Had America invested a little time understanding Islam, rather than squander its coin and spill its blood, the reign of Islamic terrorism would be over. But as a result of our collective ignorance and immorality, over the next twenty years Muslims will slaughter millions of Americans. And we will have no one to blame but ourselves.