Operation AXIOM

Twenty years ago to the day, 3 October 1993, the First Battle of Mogadishu was fought between special operations forces of the United States Army & the khat-fueled militia of Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. The battle is sometime known by the name of the book written by Mark Bowden, subsequently made into a major motion picture, Black Hawk Down. It is difficult to remember now, after thousands were murdered on 9/11 & thousands more gave the last full measure of devotion in a decade of war in Afghanistan & Iraq, the shock & trauma of nineteen American soldiers killed in the streets of a faraway, benighted city; of some of their bodies being desecrated & dragged through those same streets; of American helicopters shot out of the sky by rocket-propelled grenades. This came only two years after the glorious, almost bloodless triumph of the Gulf War, of Operation DESERT STORM & "These colors don't run." The U.S.-led U.N. mission in Somalia was humanitarian in nature. Amidst widespread chaos & famine, the warlord had hijacked & otherwise obstructed the delivery of international relief supplies, of food & medicine; in one of his last acts in office, the first President Bush sent in the United States Marine Corps to ensure the smooth delivery of the international aid (Operation RESTORE HOPE). Once the flow of food was restored, the Marines were withdrawn & a much smaller contingent of special operations forces—the Rangers, Delta Force, & the 160th S.O.A.R.—stayed behind to arrest the warlord Aidid & bring him to some form of international "justice" (Operation GOTHIC SERPENT). Within six months of the First Battle of Mogadishu, all U.S. armed forces were withdrawn from Somalia, which was allowed to fall further & further into anarchy. (Somalia is still a failed state, & the world is still reaping that particular whirlwind, as illustrated by last week's brutal siege of the Westgate shopping mall/office complex in Nairobi, Kenya, by al-Shabaab, a jihadist militia affiliated with al-Qaeda.) Eighteen American soldiers, a Malaysian peacekeeper, & upwards of a thousand Somali militiamen were killed in the First Battle of Mogadishu; the Medal of Honor was awarded, posthumously, to Delta Force snipers Master Sergeant Gordon & Sergeant First Class Shughart; Secretary of Defense Les Aspin resigned amid criticism that he has denied U.S. forces in Somalia the armed fighting vehicles & heavy air support that might have forestalled or at least saved numerous lives during the battle. Black Hawk Down, twenty years ago to-day.