Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States has become the world's only superpower, in order to expand its position, it has constantly launched wars to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, but it is such a military power, but in a small country in East Africa, Somalia, bent over, in 1993, the United States not only failed to achieve the predetermined goal, but also regarded as the most serious military losses after the Vietnam War.
Known as the "Horn of Africa", the Somali Peninsula is located in eastern Africa, across the sea from the Arabian Peninsula, it has the longest coastline in Africa, the marine trade industry is developed, coupled with the mediterranean region and the Indian Ocean traffic hub, the geographical location is extremely important, however, it has not been able to prosper with its excellent geographical location, mainly because the region is in turmoil all year round
In 1991, the Somali Bare regime was overthrown, one of the leaders of the United Assembly, Mahdi self-proclaimed as the interim president, which led to another of the general assembly's bearers, Aideid was very dissatisfied, for which the two sides in order to compete for the Somali capital Mogadishu, launched an armed conflict, Somali tribes, also began to join the chaos, war and chaos, in such a chaotic society, people do not have to worry about life, in Somalia every household to buy something is not an Apple phone, It's not a TV, it's an AK-47
Here, the police system does not play a role, ordinary people walking on the streets in the daytime may be shot and killed, so if there is no weapon, it is tantamount to walking a tightrope on the edge of the cliff, at any time there may be a small life, coupled with the drought has led to the somali food harvest, and now there is a civil war, the lives of ordinary people have been chaotic, 300,000 refugees died in the warlord fight, in this case, the United Nations decided to send troops
In 1992, the United Nations sent peacekeeping forces to Somalia to begin humanitarian assistance while overseeing the ceasefire among the various tribes
However, this did not improve local security, the delivery of aid soon arrived in Somalia, was looted by local warlords, this year Clinton was successfully elected president of the United States, he took office to revitalize the domestic economy, and enhance the prestige of the United States in the world, he was keenly aware that the humanitarian crisis in Somalia will become an "asset" of his political career, so a peacekeeping resolution called "Rebuild Hope Action" was adopted in 1992. This resolution may be in the interest of the whole world, but it is not in the interest of Aidid, who is about to defeat his old enemy and unify the country, how can he end the truce for a single document at this juncture? So the bad deeds of Aideid, ambushed the transport vehicles of the United Nations peacekeeping forces, not only snatched the humanitarian relief materials that were supposed to be rescued by refugees, but also killed many Pakistani peacekeepers, the so-called Goth snake operation, refers to the US military's capture of Farah Aideid's operation, and before the US military action, it was also authorized by the United Nations, it can be said that the US military's operation is completely reasonable, but the development of the matter is far beyond the expectations of the Americans
On December 9, 199, the United States was authorized by the United Nations to form a peacekeeping force of about 38,000 people to enter Somalia for peacekeeping, and grain from all over the world was also shipped to Somalia, when the Somali warlords faced a powerful peacekeeping force, they were a little overwhelmed for a while, so the warlords of all walks of life reduced their firepower conflicts, and on December 11, the US special envoy Robert Oakley invited the leaders of the two main opposing factions in Somalia, Mahdi and Aideed, to meet and adjust. In the end, it also succeeded in getting the two sworn enemies to reach a ceasefire agreement, but for Aidid to let the things in hand go like this, he was certainly unwilling, at the beginning this brother did converge a lot, but also in a short period of time so that Somalia began to turn better, soon, the U.S. government mistakenly believed that Somalia has been stabilized, withdrawn 27,000 soldiers, leaving only more than 1,000 troops, Aidedide watched the U.S. military begin to retreat, he was ready to move again, began to steal the food aided by the United Nations, It also prevents civilians from engaging in defamation of peacekeeping forces
In June 1993, when the Pakistani peacekeeping force was on a peacekeeping mission in Mogadishu, it was ambushed by Aideide's militia, 24 Pakistani peacekeepers were killed and crushed by the militia, more than 60 people were injured, Aideid's brutal behavior shocked the United Nations and the world, so the United Nations authorized the peacekeeping forces to take all necessary measures to arrest the "black hand behind the scenes" and eliminate the Aideid forces. Just arresting a person should be a very simple operation, after all, in the eyes of the US military, catching a warlord is similar to catching a Latin American drug lord, just the leader of a criminal group with a certain amount of force, but even so, the US army in order to fight a beautiful battle or no light enemy, he sent the "Ranger" famous, the Army Special Forces Seventy-fifth Corps, the sixth team of the naval force known as the "SEALs", and the frightening "Delta Force"
On October 3, 1993, the commander of the U.S. Army learned through an informant that Aided would meet with his men at a hotel in Mogadishu, so he formulated a secret plan to raid the hotel, and this plan was named Operation Irene, at 3 p.m., two Black Hawk helicopters lifted off from the coast and flew straight to the Olympic Hotel in Mogadishu, 12 Humvee military vehicles on the ground came out at the same time, following the Black Hawk all the way, according to the original plan, guerrillas and Delta troops, respectively, took Black Hawk helicopters, Flew to the designated area to carry out the attack, however, do not know why, the Rangers were actually sent to a place one block away from the designated location, and in the process of delivery, it was also a frequent situation, one member of the Rangers unfortunately, fell from a height of twenty meters and caused serious injuries, which can be described as unfavorable, in contrast, the Delta Force began to be in better condition, directly at the meeting of the warlords, arrested all the participants on the spot, according to the scheduled plan they should evacuate by car, But things went beyond control, because Aidid was not among the 24 personnel, and the movement was too large to expose the target, and soon a loud and piercing horn sounded in the ears of the US special operations forces, "Come out and fight for your homeland."
Then there were a large number of blacks armed with AK and other rudimentary weapons, from the doors, windows, various hidden corners appeared, flocked to the Olympic Hotel, launched an attack on the US troops, because the action before receiving instructions not to massacre civilians, so in the counterattack, the US army was afraid to fight, only hit Aidid's men, afraid of accidentally injuring civilians, but did not expect that a large number of civilians also joined in, in the face of such a large siege, the huge No. 61 Black Hawk helicopter, hovering over the heads of this group of ragged Somalis, The sniper on the plane kept killing the person with the gun below, just in the chaos, an RPG missile hit a "Black Hawk" tail, the helicopter immediately fell, after that, another helicopter that came to the rescue was shot down by a bazooka in the process of covering, although 2 soldiers volunteered to go to the rescue, but four punches were difficult to defeat N hands, facing thousands of Somali militia, they were eventually killed, the pilot Durant was captured alive by the Somalis after the forced landing, and finally stripped naked Parade in the streets, The other 100 or so American soldiers were like trapped beasts, greeted by bullets wherever they went
This arrest operation, which should have been smooth, turned into a battle of purgatory, the battle lasted so long, until night fell slowly, the poorly equipped Somalis lost their vision in the dark, the crazy streets finally quieted down, at this time the US military command had realized the seriousness of the matter, and immediately sent a powerful rescue force into Mogadishu, rampaged all the way, beat the Somalis to flee in all directions, and finally collected all the remnants of the special operators, and returned to the base before dawn. In this battle, 19 AMERICAN troops were killed and 1 captured, more than 70 people were wounded, 2 black hawk helicopters were shot down and 3 were injured, and many trucks and "Humvee" armored vehicles were destroyed, while on the Somali side, the death toll was conservatively estimated to reach 3,000, and the number of injured people was even more numerous, but you don't know that nearly half of these are civilians, plus the somalis use ropes to drag the PICTURES of US soldiers on television, public opinion is in an uproar, many countries are attacking the US government, and the criticism is even more endless
Under pressure, Clinton ordered the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Somalia and negotiated with Aideide, and finally reached an agreement, they returned the Black Hawk pilot and corpse, the U.S. military released all Aideed prisoners, no longer took Aidid as a target, this two-day and one-night fierce battle, became the "Waterloo" in modern military history, known as "the biggest defeat of the U.S. military after the Vietnam War."
In 1994, Clinton announced the withdrawal of US troops from Somalia, the United Nations was also disappointed, busy after the busy, throwing billions of dollars, the result of the Somalis instead of thanking, but openly attacked the United Nations peacekeeping force, the United Nations peacekeeping force immediately began to withdraw troops, and finally, lasting 27 months, costing more than $2 billion in Somalia peacekeeping operations failed
Well, this issue ends here, I am the unorthodox Zhai Godfather, a small author who focuses on interpreting Chinese and foreign stories, welcome to leave comments below, we will see you in the next issue.