WI: Black Hawn Down does not occur?
- Thread starter Ming777
- Start date
Maybe not much depending on wether or not the mission to capture the targets in the city was successful or not. In either case those soldiers are still going to kick over a hornets nest and the fighting will be fierce.
It could cause President Clinton to make more of an effort to secure Somolia and help them to establish a stable working government if he does not have all the negative publicity that comes with dead American soldiers being dragged through the streets.
It could cause President Clinton to make more of an effort to secure Somolia and help them to establish a stable working government if he does not have all the negative publicity that comes with dead American soldiers being dragged through the streets.
The scale and details of the Black Hawk Down incident wasn't inevitable but some sort of incident was. US forces were growing rapidly more unpopular and their force structure was completely inappropriate for the urban pacification operations they were being drawn into. You can delay it but US forces were going to get a bloody nose at some point.
I disagree, butter-flying away Black Hawk Down just means a similar incident happens a few weeks later. US forces had the wrong force-structure, too few troops and a complete lack of intelligence combined with an extremely aggressive operational tempo. They were riding for a fall, you can delay it and modify it but you can't prevent it.
Cook
Banned
Something was going to happen to them but not for the reasons you are giving, for the reason they were so effectively hit on 3 October, 1993; the Rangers and Delta force were using the same tactical plan repeatedly.
Well maybe Les Aspin wouldn't have been force to resign. I am not sure how that would have effected the the DOD but his policies were different than William Perry.
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The incident in the Olympic Hotel/Bakara market that became known as Blackhawk Down was the result of political meddling within JSOC. Originally Aidid was a good guy then bam one day hes evil incarnate. The political decision to go after Aidid in his stronghold at what was the height of his troops khat cycle in one of the worlds(at the time) open air weapon markets. Was akin to trying to arrest of group of meth fueled bikers at a gun convention ie. not really bright. The desire at the top lvl's for results was unrelenting in its intensity. Coming as it did after the relatively bloodless victory in the Gulf War it was an embarrassment to the Clinton administration they avoided by going home,Regardless of the fact Somalia was a failed State where innocents were dying from malnutrition daily and still do 20 yrs later.
A near perfect day at the resort hotel
Most of the casualties were from responding to the downed helicopters. With no downed helicopters, the Rangers and Seals remain in a large, effective group. Things still get hot at the hotel. Harassing fire builds and some hopped up Khat gun guys make the mistake of trying to rush the Rangers and Delta forces who rapidly turn the hotel into a fixed postion. The rush assault is quickly annihilated. Rangers sieze a few nearby buildings. Then, Ranger and Delta snipers etc. have a field day with harassing gun men. U.S. forces leisurely call in reinforcements as needed and then withdraw as a large unit with minimum casualties.
August 1998, Afghanistan
A confident Clinton acting on advise from confident Special Forces commanders authorizes a sequel raid in Afghanistan. Instead of sending cruise missiles after Ben ladin, a large scale Iran Hostage rescue type operation is launched from Tajikistan. A Ranger Batalion reinforced by Seals and Marine Recon (with a certain number of light vehicles for mobility) lands in the suspected hide out area and sytematicaly searches for Ben Ladin while taking the dazed Al Queda militants and a few stray Talibaners completely by surprise. After a few Taliban columns rushing to the area are bombed into oblivion, the Taliban decides that the stressed Al Quedans are on their own and simply waits the Americans out. After five days of search and destroy, the elite U.S. troops are airlifted out.
Have they killed or captured the key 9-11 plotters?
What about Ben Ladin?
To paraphrase the Turkish commander in Somalia: "If you want to help the children in the bush with the big eyes and the big stomachs, you have to take the gloves of with Adid and others like him. If this cant be done, we should go home"
Agreed, the raid could of been better timed to the binge - crash cycle of the khat heads. At the end of the day, however, the Turkish commander was probably dead on. Aidid put his personal and clan interests way ahead of the starving. The only thing Aidid was going to understand was force.
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