Brutality | The Professor's Convatorium

I have just recently watched for a third time the Netflix series “Surviving Black Hawk Down.” This is Ridley Scott’s documentary remake of his acclaimed 2001 film Black Hawk Down starring none other than Josh Hartnett, Eric Bana, Ewan McGregor, Tom Hardy, Tom Sizemore, Orlando Bloom, William Fichtner, Jason Isaacs, and Sam Shepard, along with other marquee names. The movie and later docuseries is about the U.S. “aid” involvement in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993 along with the United Nations.

However, before I discuss my opinions and critique of the Ridley Scott’s docuseries and how actual participants portray those bloody days/nights, let’s get into some contextual background of 1980’s to 1993 Somalia first. This is the background Wikipedia offers…

Throughout the 1980s the Somali Rebellion escalated, eventually culminating in the full outbreak of the Somali Civil War and the collapse of the regime of President Siad Barre at the start of 1991. Food shortages began in mid-1990, the final year of Siad Barre’s rule.^[26] By early 1991, the formal economy collapsed as rebel groups toppled the Somali Democratic Republic.^[27] A severe drought hit southern Somalia in 1991–1992,^[28]^[29] while the civil war disrupted traditional coping mechanisms as law enforcement disintegrated. The famine’s primary cause was the war’s devastation of infrastructure and farmland in the inter-riverine regions.^[30]^[31]

The main rebel faction that had toppled the regime was the United Somali Congress (USC),^[32] which divided into two armed factions: one led by Ali Mahdi Muhammad, who later became president; and the other by General Mohamed Farrah Aidid, which became known as the Somali National Alliance (SNA).^[33] After losing control of Mogadishu, remnants of former President Barres forces created the Somali National Front (SNF) and withdrew south into the nations breadbasket.^[34] Serious damage was inflicted in Somalia’s agricultural regions during fighting between the SNF and Aidid’s forces, before the latter drove the SNF far into the south of the country.^[35]

The UNOSOM and UNITAF

In early 1992, as relief agencies initiated operations to respond to the humanitarian crisis, they encountered growing obstacles in delivering aid to the impacted affected inter-riverine region. The disintegration of Somali law enforcement paved the way for armed looters and criminals to steal food from storage sites and supply routes. Many thieves at Mogadishu’s sea and airport, the main supply hub, were linked to the rebel forces of Ali Mahdi and Mohamed Farah Aidid but were effectively demobilized following the rout of the SNF. With militia leaders lacking funds and Barre’s forces no longer presenting a unifying threat and, Aidid and Mahdi increasingly lost control over many young fighters, as did clan elders. As a result, many resorted to food theft for survival and income. In response to this deteriorating security situation, UNOSOM I was established in April 1992 under the leadership of Mohamed Sahnoun to help facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid.^[36] In May 1992 the first UN aid shipment arrived in Mogadishu.^[37]

During August 1992, U.S. President George H.W. Bush launched Operation Provide Relief, deploying U.S. military transport aircraft to support the UN relief effort in Somalia.^[33] That same month, UNOSOM I head Mohammed Sahnoun secured Somali National Alliance approval for 500 peacekeepers, with further deployments requiring the groups consent. However, UN Secretary-General Boutros Ghali unilaterally announced an expansion to 3,500 troops days later, undermining the local support Sahnoun had built. Overruled by UN headquarters, he failed to delay the deployment.^[38] The large-scale intervention in late 1992 fueled nationalist opposition, bolstering Aidid’s SNA, which denounced the UN’s perceived colonial approach.^[39] By November 1992, largely owing to the mediation efforts of Mohamed Sahnoun, aid was flowing through the Mogadishu port unimpeded, with theft and banditry on the routes to famine zones averaging around 20%.^[40] That same month, Sahnoun was replaced by Ismat T. Kittani, who took a confrontational approach, deploying UNOSOM troops into politically sensitive areas and triggering a security crisis with local factions. Kittani claimed 80% of aid shipments were looted, a figure later echoed by the UN Secretariat and the U.S. State Department to justify expanding intervention, though many top UN officials and aid workers disputed the figure.^[41] In the view of some top UNOSOM I commanders, the scope of the famine was being exaggerated in order to justify using Somalia as an experiment,^[42] as the UN Secretariat believed Somalia represented an ideal candidate for a test case of a UN operation of expanded size and mandate.^[43]

On 9 December 1992, American troops began landing on the Somali coastline at Mogadishu under UNITAF (Operation Restore Hope). A total 17,800 US Marines and 10,000 US Army infantry were deployed.^[44] The famine in Somalia was already concluding as the troops began landing.^[45] The United States had various motives for military involvement in Somalia. The US armed forces wanted to prove it’s capability to conduct major ‘Operations Other Than War‘, while the US State Department wanted to set a precedent for humanitarian military intervention in the post-Cold War era.^[43] The United Nations Secretariat believed Somalia represented an ideal candidate for a test case of a UN operation in expanded size and mandate.^[43] The United Nations’ intervention, backed by U.S. Marines, has been credited with helping end the famine in Somalia, though the starvation had been improving in the worst-affected areas before troops arrived.^[46][47] In November 1994, the Washington-based Refugee Policy Group NGO estimated that of the approximately 100,000 lives that were saved as a result of international assistance, 10,000 had been after the deployment of U.S. troops in December 1992.^[48]

Within this framework above the United States got trapped in playing world police force once again as it has so, so, SO many times in recent history without an explicit exit plan so as to not end up the bad-guy or the invading military force in the eyes of the native population and the rest of the world. That is precisely what I loathe and despise about our country’s arrogant involvement in world affairs at the EXPENSE of U.S. military personnel and forces! I also often despise our military soldiers on the ground inside high-tension deployments and their super naive, prejudice, velcro’d-out testosterone-overloaded outlook on the native population and culture, as several of these American Battle of Mogadishu servicemen testify in this docuseries. Yuk! 🤢🤮 Man it rubs me wrong and raw!

And before I get into this and my negative and positive opinions about the entire Mogadishu operation, I want to remind any hyper-conservative, MAGA tRumpel supporters of the same cocky attitude, that George W. Bush put all of our valuable servicemen and women at high risk in the wasted, useless campaigns of Iraq 2003–2011 and the more useless, wasteful conflict in Afghanistan 2001–2021 where far too many American military lives were lost for, no reason, NO GAIN whatsoever for the U.S., for the world, or for the native countries we attacked and invaded. Neither Afghanistan or Iraq are better off. Period. Fact.

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The best part of Ridley Scott’s docuseries “Surviving Black Hawk Down” is that he gives ample interview time to the Somalis who lived through those horrific days and nights in October 1993. They bluntly speak about how indiscriminately the American Ranger forces and Army helicopter gunmen fired upon unarmed Somali citizens, including women and children from above up in the air. No wonder most all Somalis hated the U.S. armed forces, turned against them, and joined Mohamed Farah Adid’s rebel forces! Duh. This is clearly when hyped-up over-testosteroned, velcroed-up boys in our military get way out of hand and far too cocky! Way to go Rangers. 🙄 You just made your own job 10-times harder. Dumb.

Because the American forces wanted to impose their military cockiness it is no wonder the Somali militia wanted to kill Americans:

Throughout the documentary the interviewed Ranger and Delta Force (ex)servicemen talk as if killing Somalis is nothing, that it is a favor to the world. But when it comes to their own squad/platoon mates, it is an atrocity, a human violation, and punishable by brute force. When did global fairness, global justice, or even fair humane treatment for all humans sway and go over to ONLY an American point-of-view and justification!? When? This disturbed and bothered me greatly listening to these ex-servicemen. One of them, Ranger David Diemer, talks about killing Somalis indiscriminately as if they had no worth on this planet, no family, no children.

I couldn’t believe my ears and what I was hearing him say. But when he talked about how the Somalis felt they had to fight back, to him EVERYONE there was a shooter and he would shoot any of them whether they were carrying a weapon or not! It was utterly astonishing to listen to him talk so callously. 🤦‍♂️

And then there was Tom Satterly, a member of the U.S. Delta Force who joined forces with the Army Rangers in the Battle of Mogadishu. This man truly believed (back then) that he and Delta were the best and “untouchable” and everything they did for America was always right, always moral, and always the best thing for the world. Those are essentially HIS words, I sh*t you not.

There was one very true thing that Tom Satterly, ex-Delta Force, did say in the docuseries at the end that was indeed profoundly true. But, BUT it shows the narrow-mindedness of angry American soldiers when they are put into an impossible powder-keg of a situation by clueless American politicians and a Commander-in-Chief. Watch this and you’ll see/hear exactly what I mean:

There is such a huge disconnect from humanity from these servicemen, that it baffles the brain of any normal, decent, human being. I get it. It is the Fog of War. Our adrenaline is pumping so massively that we military-men lose our sane cognition. I’ve seen this a hundred thousand times in military men in conflict. It is part of the Fight or Flight mentality—kill, kill, kill or die—that all humans possess. It doesn’t make its behavior or consequences right, moral, or universal. But it does exist and rears its ugly head whether we like it or not.

If there is anything I do recommend about Ridley Scott’s docuseries Surviving Black Hawk Down, it is this: it will amply show you how brutally inhumane all people will get in severe, life-threatening conflict. Is it worth it in the ultimate end?

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