Man Without Qualities

Posted 10:04 PM by Robert

The Ghost Of Clinton Administration Incompetence Rules Us From The Grave

The Washington Times reports:

Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's strategy of creating a "series of Mogadishus" in Iraq's southern cities failed because the United States committed overwhelming firepower and political will, unlike in Somalia in 1993, Pentagon officials said yesterday. ....

The allies' rout of the Fedayeen stirs memories of urban battles in Somalia nearly 10 years ago. At the time, a joint U.S. task force tried to subdue warlord gangs and capture their leaders so that humanitarian workers could save starving Somalis. The force consisted of extremely light infantry: Army Rangers, Delta Force, some infantry and helicopters. There was no armor. AC-130 gunships had been withdrawn because some Clinton administration officials feared that the planes' machine guns and cannons did too much damage. After 18 service members were killed in an operation retold in the "Black Hawk Down" book and movie, President Clinton withdrew troops from the Horn of Africa nation.

The disaster in Mogadishu became legend among Islamic terrorists as a lesson in how to defeat the Americans.

Several Pentagon sources say the Ba'ath Party regime repeatedly referred to "Black Hawk Down" in military training. As the allied invasion neared, Baghdad sent thousands of Fedayeen fighters into southern cities to create "a series of Mogadishus," one Pentagon source said.

The source said the regime believed that if the Fedayeen caused dozens of combat deaths, the U.S. troops would leave, just as they did in Somalia.

One shudders to imagine what grotesque little thoughts are still creeping around inside the heads of the rulers of, say, North Korea, as a result of their encounter with Clinton Administration incompetence.