Skip to main content

Clinton's Black Hawk History





The Wall Street Journal has this featured article which reiterates much of what has been said about Clinton's recent attempt to blame the Battle of the Black Sea (Black Hawk Down) on President Bush Version 1.



We can understand Mr. Clinton wanting to defend himself, but as usual he can't get his own facts straight. His introduction of Somalia here is one of those breathtakingly brazen attempts to dodge responsibility for which Mr. Clinton is justly famous.



...



President Bush the Elder sent U.S. forces into Somalia in December 1992 to aid the United Nations in relieving a massive famine. In May of 1993, four months into his term, President Clinton declared that mission accomplished and pulled out most of the U.S. force.



...



[B]ack in Somalia, with no U.S. deterrent, Somalia's warlords began fighting again. After a series of bloody attacks on U.N. peacekeepers, Mr. Clinton launched a new mission: In August 1993, he sent in a force of Rangers and Special Forces units to capture the brutal warlord Mohammad Farrah Aidid and restore order.
[Emphasis mine.]



Thus, Bush v1 really had nothing to do with the events in Somalia that have come to be known as Black Hawk Down. It's Clinton all the way, rah rah rah!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Not the Hero We Deserve, But the Hero We Need

The Dark Knight is the best film I’ve seen in years. Not just the best “superhero” film, but the best film of any type. It’s not perfect, not quite a masterpiece, but it’s flaws are, to me, tiny and overwhelmed by the time the film ends. While relatively bloodless, it is consistently brutal, not just in what it depicts but in the themes that drive it. TDK is a film for adults, please leave the kids at home. Let’s deal with those “flaws” first, the largest being the character Rachel Dawes . In Batman Begins , I blamed Katie Holmes . Her acting was weak, to say the least, which is regrettable in that who she is and what she says and does are important to the film. Critics agreed and either for that or other reasons, Katie was replaced by Maggie Gyllenhaal , who is a better actress. Yet here she’s weak, real weak. Maybe it’s the character, not the actress, which is frustrating because Rachel is a pivotal character. The film,...
1 comment
Read more

John Wick: Chapter 4

No sense in playing coy, this is a great film. I’ve seen it twice and while I don’t quite love it in the way I love the first, original John Wick , it’s my #2. It’s a little overlong, has some wasted space and time, has one absolutely pointless and useless character, and generally ignores the realities of firefights, falling, getting shot, hit, etc. All that notwithstanding, it’s a great action flick, has a genuine emotional core, and is well worth your time if you’re into that sort of thing. Like I am. Summary: John Wick (Keanu Reeves), last seen saying he was fed up with the High Table, goes to war to obtain his freedom. Some of the most incredible action scenes ever filmed ensue, culminating in a very satisfactory finale and a devastating post-credit scene. The first Wick film was a surprise hit. It was a simple, straight-forward tale of vengeance told in a simple, straight-forward manner. Where it stood out was its devotion to human stunt work, on exploiting long camera shots that ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Super 8

Part of the reason I blog at all is to maintain some practice with writing. This hasn’t worked well since by the time I’m done with the work day, I never want to type again. But there’s this old manuscript that wants to finish its digital conversion (from analog Smith-Corona original to digital Word) so that I can revive the 1988 published novel ( Derelict , ah I remember it fondly). And then I can polish the new one, and get on with the next one. Kindle, I have stuff coming to Kindle! In the meanwhile, I’m not sure what to make of Super 8 . I know, it’s been out a few weeks already, but I don’t want to write about Transformers: Dark of the Moon because it was just loud and silly, the motion picture equivalent of a decent Fourth of July fireworks display (i.e., all flash, less than zero substance). So I took a moment to catch Super 8 and I’m left with this overall feeling of meh . It is by no means a bad film, it’s just...lacking. Super 8 is J.J. Abrams’ homage to Steven Spielberg, ...
2 comments
Read more