Black Hawk Down Summary Essay

This movie is visually rich, capturing the surreal atmosphere of Somalia in 1993, and the almost numbing carnage, bombing and confusion.The action sequences are very well done and harrowing.

By 1992, 300,000 people were estimated dead due to civil war and famine in Somalia. These first operations were an almost immediate failure, however, as planes and food supplies were looted upon reaching Somali soil. [4] After this initial success, the newly inaugurated President William J. On June 5, 1993, 24 UN/Pakistani troops were killed while inspecting weapons storage sites around Mogadishu.

They were attacked by Aidid’s militia in another one of his attempts to maintain control of the city. This book discusses American wars and operations during the 1990s to explore why America entered such conflicts, how they are carried out, what we have learned from them, and what part the media plays in influencing these situations.

On October 3, 1993, Task Force Rangers attempted to arrest Omar Salad Elmi, Aidid’s foreign minister, and Mohamed Hassan Awale, Aidid’s political advisor. convoys came under attack early as Somali militia crowded the streets and blocked roads with burning tires. troops rushed to save the downed crewmen, and the entire U. force came under siege from the militia in the city. As a result, President Clinton, under heavy pressure from the U. The book explains the difference between the "Army Rangers" and "Delta Force" and what their purposes are.

This disastrous mission led to the Battle of Mogadishu. As vehicle convoys came under small arms fire and RPG (rocket propelled grenade) attacks, two Blackhawk helicopters were shot down. If one wishes to understand the context of the mission and wishes to know background information on the different units, the book This article discusses the history of Somalia as a nation, along with the rise of war lords and anarchy in Somalia from the 1960s-1990s. is a reality check for the hyper saturated action movie. At the very least, Operation Restore Hope has shown that U. policy makers and soldiers have learned the lesson of Vietnam mainly by rote and have yet to turn it into an integrated intervention policy.".

"US military revamps combat medic training and care: new training methods for US combat medics are transforming the care of war causalities." Lancet (2003): 494. The documentary indicates that the mission on October 3rd 1993 aimed not to capture two specific lieutenants of warlord Aidid but to capture Aidid himself, "intel" from an Aidid insider, code-named "Lincoln," indicating that Aidid was to attend the meeting at the building next to the Olympic Hotel. The documentary, like Scott's film, focuses primarily on the experiences of the soldiers involved in the October 3rd "Battle of Mogadishu;" however, the film provides more consideration of the political and historical circumstances that may have contributed to the mission's failure.

Further, the documentary indicates that President Clinton, who had "inherited" the mission from his predecessor George H. Bush, initiated negotiations with Aidid at least a month before the bloody raid in a diplomatic attempt to bring order to Somalia and reduce U. As the documentary tells it, the mission was the doomed stepchild of at least four contradictory impulses: a humanitarian intervention in order to distribute food in Mogadishu; a military goal to quell the chaos resulting from civil warfare between at least 17 different factions; an attempt at "nation-building" in order to reconstruct a new society from the failed nation of Somalia; and a righteous quest to "bring to justice" Aidid for the murder of 24 Pakistani soldiers (serving the United Nations) earlier in 1993.

The shooting is so fast and furious that most of the U. Some find that a weakness, but it seemed a strength to me.

There is some truly mind-boggling -- and according to Bowden's book -- real heroism in this story, and it is genuinely moving.

The crash scenes brought tens of thousands of heavily-armed militia running, and the U. Somalia, along with the Bosnian conflicts, taught the American military once again that soldiers shouldn't be sent anywhere unless goals are clearly defined and there is a willingness to pursue the conflict to some conclusion even if there are casualties. The American Somalia mission -- clear at first -- degenerated into policing and warlord-busting, and nobody in or outside of the film can really explain why 19 U. It's almost completely unadorned by speechifying, peripheral love interests and character development, or other Hollywood BS.

Many military analysts say this shadow persisted over the U. As was the case in HBO's Band of Brothers, there is no single star around which the movie flows, apart perhaps from Hartnett, who plays a Ranger sergeant promoted hours before the battle. There's so much blood, dust and darkness it's almost impossible to tell many apart for much of the movie.