There are a lot of things that contributed to the staggering loss of life in Mogadishu 25 years ago. That day felt to me like 9/11 did years later, with footage of helicopters crashing and dead soldiers being desecrated. Horrible.
If our government is going to deploy men and women, then we damn well demand our rotten politicians give them the full support they need to accomplish a clearly defined mission with rules of engagement that enable them to prevail and survive. AC-130 gunships were withdrawn from the theater recently, and probably would have done more to protect the soldiers than anything. No offense, but I can’t imagine a situation where tactical nuclear weapons should be used - especially in a populated area, no matter how bad that population is. It opens a pandora’s box we probably wouldn’t be able to close.
Non-lethal teargas grenades would have been another great tool, but I seem to remember that the soldiers had to stop carrying their 40mm grenade launchers and strip the Mk19 grenade launchers from the Humvees. Restrictive ROE imposed on our troops have been hamstringing our men for over half a century. There was a lot of valor on the night of 3-4 Oct. 1993, and a lot of tragedy that could have been prevented.
I agree with all of your post.
My mention of tactical nukes was a bit of a troll. Sorry. I’m used to posting on liberal sites. :)
“Staggering loss of life” ?
In 82 days on Okinawa in WW2, there were 12,000 Americans killed and 50,000 wounded.