Rejection and Revenge: An alternate 9/11 timeline
- Thread starter wolverinethad
- Start date
Bookmark1995
Banned
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. Nixon never misses an opportunity to burn people, even without napalm.
No, Clinton will be remembered as the guy who dropped the bomb.
Potentially, the events of the TL will stop, or at least delay, the extreme partisanship we've seen in the last two decades. In a period of such turmoil, Gingrich's strategy of partisan immaturity could kill his political career, since the American people are in a time where they demand results, not idiotic accusations against the man leading the country.
I agree that for now, partisanship won't work at the moment, and will probably be delayed a bit, but, eventually, after the dust has settled a bit more, Republicans will start pulling farther to the right to strengthen their base and use those numbers to try and defeat the Democrats, and they do that by bringing up many of the partisan issues that do divide the country, from gay rights, abortion, etc...
I will be curious to see how the gay rights movement will build up in this TL, and, in some ways even more importantly, if climate change will be politicized or not.
On another note, I also wonder which Republican will eventually become POTUS and when, and, if Democrats will actually nominate an African American, Latino or Woman... In this TL, it's really not hard to see McCain winning in the future, especially if he isn't pulled too far to the right, and doesn't pick an idiot like Palin, but perhaps goes for someone like Susan Collins if Republicans want to beat Dems at their own game of going for the someone other than an white male on the ticket... All that being said, we're way to far away for thoughts like this, because unless there's an epic fuckup, Clinton will remain in office until 2000, and by then, should the TL make it that far, things should be different enough for some very interesting alt history. My best guess is that unless the country is particularly unified by the 2000 election, it'll be that time more or less that the partisanship will start to take the tones we are seeing now... tho that also depends on who controls the house and senate at the time, as well as who the eventual nominees for president are by the time of that election...
On the wrong people. When THAT comes out, all bets are off.
At risk of stating the obvious, you're presuming that eventually it will definitely be found out that bin Laden is to blame.
What if it never is?
The interesting question then becomes whether it becomes clear that whoever did it, it was not Iran.
TheHolyInquisition
Banned
A detonation at that altitude should not produce any EMP. It's far too low.
Whenever it's ready, PM the author rather than bumping the thread if you're that concerned.
I've got most of the chapter written, I'm just having a hard time writing the back end of it the right way. I'm currently writing the next chapter of the P&S spinoff I began, and with a four-day weekend, I think I'll be able to finish my R&R chapter as well.
Coming soon....
We fast forward several months into the future, as the political realignment continues, Russia drifts away, and a crazier Battle of Mogadishu than OTL. The chapter should be up within days.
Meanwhile, if you feel like a different nuclear scenario, my P&S-verse spinoff, Protect & Survive Miami: End of Watch moves on, with a new chapter going up sometime today.
Stay tuned, everybody....
Meanwhile, if you feel like a different nuclear scenario, my P&S-verse spinoff, Protect & Survive Miami: End of Watch moves on, with a new chapter going up sometime today.
Stay tuned, everybody....
Chapter LXXVIII
LXXVIII
October 3, 1993
Mogadishu, Somalia
So often throughout history, momentous battles have come out of complete surprise. The Battles of Lexington and Concord, George Washington's raid on Trenton, Gettysburg, the Battle of the Bulge, Khe Sanh, and this day, the not-yet named Battle of Mogadishu. The preceding months, however, almost made what happened on this day a footnote.
The Clinton White House had tried to straddle the line between keeping the Russians onside and not losing allies, and in the process, muddled everything. Relations had cooled with NATO, but the Russians had not made a complete break with America, thanks to Talbott's tireless work with the nation he'd studied for decades. The brighter observers in the press noted that someone who lacked his knowledge of Russian thinking and history would likely have botched it. Talbott's hard work, though, didn't result in the promotion he'd hoped for, as Colin Powell retired as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and became the first African-American secretary of state, ratified unanimously by the Senate on a voice vote. Powell quietly told Talbott after his nomination was announced that he planned to leave after the first term, even if Clinton was re-elected, and appealed to his patriotism to stay in place. Talbott agreed, and along with Richard Armitage, Powell's longtime friend who'd been named Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources, the State Department held together a thoroughly difficult situation.
Russia, however, still was hemorrhaging money badly, due to Europe's refusal to pony up any more aid for the struggling nation. The Commonwealth of Independent States, which had been formed in the ruins of the Soviet Union, quickly fell apart, as the major republics of Ukraine and the Baltic states withdrew, and were quickly welcomed into the European Economic Community. As a result, China stepped in and aided Rutskoy's government in return for a share of mineral rights in Siberia, which they were funding the exploration of. America alone amongst the West provided any money to Russia, but it had been authorized by Congress as designated for nuclear security and dismantling only.
Another area where the divide with NATO allies came into play was when the nations that had supplied troops to the Somalia mission withdrew them in protest of America's unwillingness to cut Rutskoy adrift. The video of the massacre took a situation that was shaky and made it intolerable. The left and right came together in their criticism of Russia and Rutskoy, and the governments of the various NATO nations were left with no choice but to withdraw or face defeat electorally. Only the United Kingdom, where John Major had muted his criticism as the request of Clinton, did not withdraw from Somalia. Labour's new deputy leaders, the fresh-faced Tony Blair and the hulking Scotsman Gordon Brown, excoriated Major during Prime Minister’s Questions, and some of Major's right flank began criticizing him as well. Major was edging dangerously close to a vote of no confidence, a year after a general election in which he'd lost 40 seats. That would trigger a new election, and Labour would probably win for the first time in 18 years. All of this led to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Madeline Albright being forced to lobby smaller nations to contribute soldiers to replace those being lost by the European withdrawal.
Meanwhile, politically, the President scored a major win when his health care bill successfully passed Congress. The House was a tight vote, but the bill sailed through the Senate, even garnering the support of Minority Leader Bob Dole. Dole had started the Clinton presidency vowing to fight many of Clinton's priorities, but was boxed in by overwhelming public support for the bill. The President's Club had come together on this, too, when Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter, the strangest possible combination, both supported the legislation. Nixon had, old-time Washington hands remembered, pushed major healthcare legislation himself in 1971, and Carter, who had opposed Ted Kennedy's efforts in the late 1970s as wasteful spending, had reversed his position in light of the crisis caused by the 2/11 attacks.
The signing ceremony featured an eclectic group. Speaker Tom Foley, Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, Senator Ted Kennedy, Nixon, Carter, Minnesota Attorney General Skip Humphrey (son of Hubert), Lady Bird Johnson, Dole, former Speaker Tip O'Neill, John F. Kennedy Jr., Caroline Kennedy (Jackie did not attend due to the cancer she'd been recently diagnosed with, which some suspected was caused by fallout exposure), Margaret Truman (Harry's daughter), and Marion Javits, widow of Republican senator Jacob Javits, who'd co-sponsored a Medicare for all bill with Ted Kennedy in the 1970s, all attended the signing at Lyndon Johnson's presidential library. Clinton beamed as he signed the bill, which allowed any American to enroll in Medicare if they so chose. Private insurers darkly warned of layoffs, but those were offset by better-paying jobs with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The Medicare tax in any enrollee's paycheck went up to cover the premium's costs, but with no profit imperative, the premiums were more reasonable than private insurers while offering better coverage.
The resulting stampede to Medicare actually led to a surge in job hires, as phone bank staff were brought in and new phone lines added in regional centers to accommodate those dropping their private coverage. Meanwhile, the National Federation for Independent Business, a small-business lobby group that had long received corporate money quietly and supported corporate-friendly legislation, saw a massive defection of members after opposing the bill. 57% of NFIB members left, and soon thereafter, formed a new group, Small Businesses United, and their leadership was invited to the White House, where the economic team met with them to discuss further initiatives to increase job numbers and make it easier to start a small business. That meeting led to a commission headed by Vice President Gore and Labor Secretary Rubin, which was currently engaged in a review of all current business regulations. Gore promised at the end of his review that, when the commission's work was concluded, business regulations would be comprehensive, yet easy to understand and streamlined. Instead of the thousands of pages currently comprising the regulations, Gore's goal was to reduce it to no more than a hundred pages, by using clear and concise language.
Republicans were left on the defensive, as the Clinton administration was co-opting GOP rhetoric about “reducing government interference in business” by actually enacting reductions. Newt Gingrich led the charge on the House floor during debate for the security bills, accusing the administration of being derelict in not detecting an attack was coming, and he vowed to defeat any measure that would give the White House more power when they'd already failed to use what they had. Majority Leader Dick Gephardt saw the opening and asked Rep. John Murtha, a crusty hawk of a Democrat from Pennsylvania coal country, to rebut Gingrich. Murtha unleashed a blistering tirade, saying that it was despicable to blame an administration that'd held power for all of three weeks for an attack that clearly had been planned long in advance, and noted that Clinton had not, even once, blamed George Bush for what had happened. He called Gingrich a “red-faced, hysterical, draft-dodging weasel” and then earned a rebuke from the chair after following it up with, “You left your cancer-stricken wife for your mistress thirteen years ago and you think you hold some moral high ground? You have no morals, Mr. Gingrich, and you'd better hope God forgives you for standing against this, because America won't.” Gingrich was out of his seat before Murtha had finished that sentence, and the chair ordered the remarks stricken from the record, but the C-SPAN cameras ensured it would be kept for posterity, and all three network news shows aired the tape that night.
While all this took place, Osama bin Laden had carefully found recruits along the border between Tuur's Somaliland and Somalia proper, who were sent with money and weapons to Mohammed Farah Aidid's organization. Aidid was at first suspicious, but the men showed courage in combat amongst the various tribal groups, and won his favor. These recruits would factor significantly into the battle for Mogadishu, and would eventually lead to the discovery of the deadliest terrorist in history.
*****
The afternoon flight of Task Force Jaguar began as so many had during this Somalian deployment, quiet and hot. As the Blackhawk helicopters made a turn over a decrepit Mogadishu neighborhood, ready to execute a raid on the hideout of two top Aidid officials, Soviet-made SA-7’s (Strela-2’s) fired, downing two of the six Black Hawk UH-60 helicopters, killing several Delta Force members. The remaining four hit the deck, diving in quickly, and made a sudden landing on rooftops (actually hovering an inch or two off, so the soldiers could debark).
Those Delta Force members took cover and began to recon the area. They saw civilians pulling out soldiers from the Blackhawks that had gone down, but then Aidid’s forces started firing, and they were forced to take cover again. The next time they saw their colleagues would be on footage aired on news broadcasts across the world, dragged through the streets of Mogadishu, their bodies kicked, stomped, some even burned. Some of those men would later turn out to have survived the crash, and so they experienced horror that rivaled that of the victims of the Japanese after the Bataan Death March before their deaths.
The captain in command of Squad 1 grabbed a radio and furiously called for backup, and things progressed rapidly from there. A quick reaction force of Army Rangers in HMMWV’s left the nearby FOB (Forward Operating Base), only to run into an ambush near the firefight. Aidid’s forces pinned the QRF down well away from where they could rescue the outnumbered Delta squads, making the situation more of a mess than when it started. General Hoar got word at CENTCOM and ordered AC-130H gunships to head to the scene, but those would take a half hour at minimum to come on station. More soldiers from the 10th Light Infantry were forming up, borrowing Malaysian Condor 4x4 armored personnel carriers to try and rescue two pinned down forces now.
The Condors arrived at the site of the Rangers’ battle with Aidid’s forces, using the 20mm cannons on the vehicles to blast open the flimsy barricades set up by the guerrillas. Specialists from 10th Light opened the roof hatches and fired Hawk MM-1 grenade launchers on the exposed attackers. The extra firepower brought to bear wiped out all resistance within ten minutes. The Rangers quickly scrambled inside the Condors and the HMMWV’s that were still working, and the bolstered QRF headed to rescue Delta Force.
*****
The Delta operatives were under the heaviest fire many of them had ever faced. Light machine guns, mortars, and RPG’s were all being used to knock away barriers used for cover and keep the Deltas on the deck, unable to return fire with any sustained frequency. The surviving captains, from Squad 1 and Squad 4, radioed back and forth, trying to coordinate a retreat, but there was nowhere to retreat to. Their backs faced other strongholds for Aidid’s men, and yet holding out wasn’t much of an option, as the constant fire was drawing down Delta’s numbers.
Suddenly, familiar music broke through the din of gunfire, even halting the guerilla attack momentarily.
“I won't take no prisoners, won't spare no lives
Nobody's putting up a fight
I got my bell, I'm gonna take you to hell
I'm gonna get you, Satan get you, Hell’s Bells”
Three HMMWV’s and six Condors came crashing into the firefight from two directions, flanking Aidid’s forces. Grenades, cannon rounds and machine gun fire poured into the buildings where Aidid’s men were. With the pressure relieved, the uninjured Delta members were able to escape the rooftops they were pinned down on, save for sniper members who began systematically taking out those with RPG’s. One HMMWV was destroyed, and a Condor had a wheel blown off, but the superior numbers gave the Americans their first advantage since this fight began unexpectedly. Squads began searching the buildings, knocking out machine gun nests and eliminating any resistance. By the time the AC-130’s came on line, the battle was nearly done. The Delta captain called in fire on two nearby buildings that hadn’t been searched yet, but where resistance was still taking place. The Spectre crews armed their 105mm howitzers and began firing the heavy shells, collapsing walls and snuffing out the last of Aidid’s forces.
The Delta captain found the officers from the Rangers and 10th Light, thanking them for their timely action. Moments later, a helicopter touched down with General William Garrison, the local commander for the Somalia mission. Garrison had brought intel men with him to document the scene and hopefully discover some actionable intelligence. What they would find began to unravel the web woven around the attacks that had set the world on fire.
October 3, 1993
Mogadishu, Somalia
So often throughout history, momentous battles have come out of complete surprise. The Battles of Lexington and Concord, George Washington's raid on Trenton, Gettysburg, the Battle of the Bulge, Khe Sanh, and this day, the not-yet named Battle of Mogadishu. The preceding months, however, almost made what happened on this day a footnote.
The Clinton White House had tried to straddle the line between keeping the Russians onside and not losing allies, and in the process, muddled everything. Relations had cooled with NATO, but the Russians had not made a complete break with America, thanks to Talbott's tireless work with the nation he'd studied for decades. The brighter observers in the press noted that someone who lacked his knowledge of Russian thinking and history would likely have botched it. Talbott's hard work, though, didn't result in the promotion he'd hoped for, as Colin Powell retired as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and became the first African-American secretary of state, ratified unanimously by the Senate on a voice vote. Powell quietly told Talbott after his nomination was announced that he planned to leave after the first term, even if Clinton was re-elected, and appealed to his patriotism to stay in place. Talbott agreed, and along with Richard Armitage, Powell's longtime friend who'd been named Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources, the State Department held together a thoroughly difficult situation.
Russia, however, still was hemorrhaging money badly, due to Europe's refusal to pony up any more aid for the struggling nation. The Commonwealth of Independent States, which had been formed in the ruins of the Soviet Union, quickly fell apart, as the major republics of Ukraine and the Baltic states withdrew, and were quickly welcomed into the European Economic Community. As a result, China stepped in and aided Rutskoy's government in return for a share of mineral rights in Siberia, which they were funding the exploration of. America alone amongst the West provided any money to Russia, but it had been authorized by Congress as designated for nuclear security and dismantling only.
Another area where the divide with NATO allies came into play was when the nations that had supplied troops to the Somalia mission withdrew them in protest of America's unwillingness to cut Rutskoy adrift. The video of the massacre took a situation that was shaky and made it intolerable. The left and right came together in their criticism of Russia and Rutskoy, and the governments of the various NATO nations were left with no choice but to withdraw or face defeat electorally. Only the United Kingdom, where John Major had muted his criticism as the request of Clinton, did not withdraw from Somalia. Labour's new deputy leaders, the fresh-faced Tony Blair and the hulking Scotsman Gordon Brown, excoriated Major during Prime Minister’s Questions, and some of Major's right flank began criticizing him as well. Major was edging dangerously close to a vote of no confidence, a year after a general election in which he'd lost 40 seats. That would trigger a new election, and Labour would probably win for the first time in 18 years. All of this led to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Madeline Albright being forced to lobby smaller nations to contribute soldiers to replace those being lost by the European withdrawal.
Meanwhile, politically, the President scored a major win when his health care bill successfully passed Congress. The House was a tight vote, but the bill sailed through the Senate, even garnering the support of Minority Leader Bob Dole. Dole had started the Clinton presidency vowing to fight many of Clinton's priorities, but was boxed in by overwhelming public support for the bill. The President's Club had come together on this, too, when Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter, the strangest possible combination, both supported the legislation. Nixon had, old-time Washington hands remembered, pushed major healthcare legislation himself in 1971, and Carter, who had opposed Ted Kennedy's efforts in the late 1970s as wasteful spending, had reversed his position in light of the crisis caused by the 2/11 attacks.
The signing ceremony featured an eclectic group. Speaker Tom Foley, Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, Senator Ted Kennedy, Nixon, Carter, Minnesota Attorney General Skip Humphrey (son of Hubert), Lady Bird Johnson, Dole, former Speaker Tip O'Neill, John F. Kennedy Jr., Caroline Kennedy (Jackie did not attend due to the cancer she'd been recently diagnosed with, which some suspected was caused by fallout exposure), Margaret Truman (Harry's daughter), and Marion Javits, widow of Republican senator Jacob Javits, who'd co-sponsored a Medicare for all bill with Ted Kennedy in the 1970s, all attended the signing at Lyndon Johnson's presidential library. Clinton beamed as he signed the bill, which allowed any American to enroll in Medicare if they so chose. Private insurers darkly warned of layoffs, but those were offset by better-paying jobs with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The Medicare tax in any enrollee's paycheck went up to cover the premium's costs, but with no profit imperative, the premiums were more reasonable than private insurers while offering better coverage.
The resulting stampede to Medicare actually led to a surge in job hires, as phone bank staff were brought in and new phone lines added in regional centers to accommodate those dropping their private coverage. Meanwhile, the National Federation for Independent Business, a small-business lobby group that had long received corporate money quietly and supported corporate-friendly legislation, saw a massive defection of members after opposing the bill. 57% of NFIB members left, and soon thereafter, formed a new group, Small Businesses United, and their leadership was invited to the White House, where the economic team met with them to discuss further initiatives to increase job numbers and make it easier to start a small business. That meeting led to a commission headed by Vice President Gore and Labor Secretary Rubin, which was currently engaged in a review of all current business regulations. Gore promised at the end of his review that, when the commission's work was concluded, business regulations would be comprehensive, yet easy to understand and streamlined. Instead of the thousands of pages currently comprising the regulations, Gore's goal was to reduce it to no more than a hundred pages, by using clear and concise language.
Republicans were left on the defensive, as the Clinton administration was co-opting GOP rhetoric about “reducing government interference in business” by actually enacting reductions. Newt Gingrich led the charge on the House floor during debate for the security bills, accusing the administration of being derelict in not detecting an attack was coming, and he vowed to defeat any measure that would give the White House more power when they'd already failed to use what they had. Majority Leader Dick Gephardt saw the opening and asked Rep. John Murtha, a crusty hawk of a Democrat from Pennsylvania coal country, to rebut Gingrich. Murtha unleashed a blistering tirade, saying that it was despicable to blame an administration that'd held power for all of three weeks for an attack that clearly had been planned long in advance, and noted that Clinton had not, even once, blamed George Bush for what had happened. He called Gingrich a “red-faced, hysterical, draft-dodging weasel” and then earned a rebuke from the chair after following it up with, “You left your cancer-stricken wife for your mistress thirteen years ago and you think you hold some moral high ground? You have no morals, Mr. Gingrich, and you'd better hope God forgives you for standing against this, because America won't.” Gingrich was out of his seat before Murtha had finished that sentence, and the chair ordered the remarks stricken from the record, but the C-SPAN cameras ensured it would be kept for posterity, and all three network news shows aired the tape that night.
While all this took place, Osama bin Laden had carefully found recruits along the border between Tuur's Somaliland and Somalia proper, who were sent with money and weapons to Mohammed Farah Aidid's organization. Aidid was at first suspicious, but the men showed courage in combat amongst the various tribal groups, and won his favor. These recruits would factor significantly into the battle for Mogadishu, and would eventually lead to the discovery of the deadliest terrorist in history.
*****
The afternoon flight of Task Force Jaguar began as so many had during this Somalian deployment, quiet and hot. As the Blackhawk helicopters made a turn over a decrepit Mogadishu neighborhood, ready to execute a raid on the hideout of two top Aidid officials, Soviet-made SA-7’s (Strela-2’s) fired, downing two of the six Black Hawk UH-60 helicopters, killing several Delta Force members. The remaining four hit the deck, diving in quickly, and made a sudden landing on rooftops (actually hovering an inch or two off, so the soldiers could debark).
Those Delta Force members took cover and began to recon the area. They saw civilians pulling out soldiers from the Blackhawks that had gone down, but then Aidid’s forces started firing, and they were forced to take cover again. The next time they saw their colleagues would be on footage aired on news broadcasts across the world, dragged through the streets of Mogadishu, their bodies kicked, stomped, some even burned. Some of those men would later turn out to have survived the crash, and so they experienced horror that rivaled that of the victims of the Japanese after the Bataan Death March before their deaths.
The captain in command of Squad 1 grabbed a radio and furiously called for backup, and things progressed rapidly from there. A quick reaction force of Army Rangers in HMMWV’s left the nearby FOB (Forward Operating Base), only to run into an ambush near the firefight. Aidid’s forces pinned the QRF down well away from where they could rescue the outnumbered Delta squads, making the situation more of a mess than when it started. General Hoar got word at CENTCOM and ordered AC-130H gunships to head to the scene, but those would take a half hour at minimum to come on station. More soldiers from the 10th Light Infantry were forming up, borrowing Malaysian Condor 4x4 armored personnel carriers to try and rescue two pinned down forces now.
The Condors arrived at the site of the Rangers’ battle with Aidid’s forces, using the 20mm cannons on the vehicles to blast open the flimsy barricades set up by the guerrillas. Specialists from 10th Light opened the roof hatches and fired Hawk MM-1 grenade launchers on the exposed attackers. The extra firepower brought to bear wiped out all resistance within ten minutes. The Rangers quickly scrambled inside the Condors and the HMMWV’s that were still working, and the bolstered QRF headed to rescue Delta Force.
*****
The Delta operatives were under the heaviest fire many of them had ever faced. Light machine guns, mortars, and RPG’s were all being used to knock away barriers used for cover and keep the Deltas on the deck, unable to return fire with any sustained frequency. The surviving captains, from Squad 1 and Squad 4, radioed back and forth, trying to coordinate a retreat, but there was nowhere to retreat to. Their backs faced other strongholds for Aidid’s men, and yet holding out wasn’t much of an option, as the constant fire was drawing down Delta’s numbers.
Suddenly, familiar music broke through the din of gunfire, even halting the guerilla attack momentarily.
“I won't take no prisoners, won't spare no lives
Nobody's putting up a fight
I got my bell, I'm gonna take you to hell
I'm gonna get you, Satan get you, Hell’s Bells”
Three HMMWV’s and six Condors came crashing into the firefight from two directions, flanking Aidid’s forces. Grenades, cannon rounds and machine gun fire poured into the buildings where Aidid’s men were. With the pressure relieved, the uninjured Delta members were able to escape the rooftops they were pinned down on, save for sniper members who began systematically taking out those with RPG’s. One HMMWV was destroyed, and a Condor had a wheel blown off, but the superior numbers gave the Americans their first advantage since this fight began unexpectedly. Squads began searching the buildings, knocking out machine gun nests and eliminating any resistance. By the time the AC-130’s came on line, the battle was nearly done. The Delta captain called in fire on two nearby buildings that hadn’t been searched yet, but where resistance was still taking place. The Spectre crews armed their 105mm howitzers and began firing the heavy shells, collapsing walls and snuffing out the last of Aidid’s forces.
The Delta captain found the officers from the Rangers and 10th Light, thanking them for their timely action. Moments later, a helicopter touched down with General William Garrison, the local commander for the Somalia mission. Garrison had brought intel men with him to document the scene and hopefully discover some actionable intelligence. What they would find began to unravel the web woven around the attacks that had set the world on fire.
Greenville
Banned
It is interesting to see if Al-Qaeda did launch such an attack from Somalia when Bin Laden was there. I think Bin Laden and his leadership would've been much easier to capture because they don't have a massive mountain range to hide in or to escape into a population center like Pakistan with. A full-scale invasion of Somalia, battles with an insurgency there lasts as long as the current American occupation of Afghanistan does now.
Flipside with Somalia, it's a lot easier to get Navy support.
Not quite. The battle is shorter, and ends more decisively in favor of the Americans. No overnight battle, and the AC-130H's did not participate in OTL. It was attack helicopters that joined the fray. An AC-130H, though, with the choice of .50cal MGs, along with 20mm, 40mm, or 105mm cannon rounds, that will ruin your day in a hurry.