Black Hawk Down : A Story Of Modern War

Rating:
Summary: I read it twice!
Review: I read this book about 2 years ago when it first came out and decided to read it again in light of what is going on in Afghanistan. I enjoyed it very much both times. It is the true story of the attempt by U.S special forces to capture some "bad guys" in Somalia in 1993, but it reads like a fast paced novel. As soon as the Rangers and D-boys hit the ground, they are met by far more resistance than they anticipated, and things go wrong right away. Bowden quickly puts you right there in the midst of the fighting and chaos, and you will have a hard time putting this book down. Be forewarned, some of the descriptions of the injuries and deaths are very graphic.

Although the main thrust of the book is the ongoing battle, I was also intrigued by the depiction of Delta Force. These guys are amazing; the elite of the U.S. military, living by their own rules. They look down their noses at the Rangers, yet every 1 of the Rangers wants to become a D-boy. Bowden does a good job of showing the friction betwen the "operators" and every one else.

Another fascinating side show is the mind set of the Somalis. Several times Somali citizens are described as curiously wandering into the middle of the fighting as though trying to get a better view of a car wreck. Or rushing into the middle of the street in an attempt to retrieve a weapon from another Somali, who just seconds before had been riddled with bullets and killed. Did they think they were invisible, invincible, or didn't they care if they lived or died?

Overall, a very entertaining book!!!!

Rating:
Summary: A Classic on Battle History and Do-Gooder Intervention
Review: I read this powerful book over the 4th of July and could not put it down. It reads like a true-life Saving Private Ryan and brought tears to my eyes. All of the extremeness of war is here-horror, bravery, honor, confusion, sacrifice, camaraderie and even humor. The coffee clerk becomes a fighting machine! It is meticulously researched and reminds the reader what our men and women in the armed services do for us with too often little appreciation. I would make this book required reading for political do-gooders who are eager to have American soldiers lead third world countries into democratic prosperity.

There are few books that go into the actual workings of the Delta Force and this book can now be added to their mystique. Delta Force by Charlie Beckwith and The Commandos: The Inside Story of America's Secret Soldiers by Douglas C. Waller are other books that readers might enjoy. The "D-boys" come across as everything we would hope and expect from our elite soldiers-cocky, able, and willing to do whatever it takes to get the mission accomplished while taking care of every man on the field. The fact that one of the wifes' of a dead "operator" believed that her husband was in telecommunications demonstrates the level of integrity (and yes, even humility in civilian life) of these men.

Since the ending is probably known to most readers who follow world events, I would suggest that they start with the epilogue first to get the political history and background. The book sadly shows that President Clinton does not know the meaning of the word "honor" and had no concept of what the soldiers died for in Somalia when he immediately cancelled their mission after this battle. The book reiterates that the objective of the mission was successfully accomplished. President Clinton dishonored the men who fought and died in this battle by removing all forces soon afterwards and returning all prisoners within several months making their victory and deaths sadly in vain. (The father of a dead soldier tells Clinton that he is not fit to be Commander in Chief, long before Monica). The Somalia of today is due to Clinton withdrawing after the first touch of heat.

My only criticism-the pictures and maps are in different places in the book. When this is printed in paperback I would hope that all the maps are in the front and all the pictures in the middle.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book!
Review: Mark Bowden has done an outstanding job of telling the story of the battle of Mogadishu. U.S. army rangers and delta forces were in Mogadishu trying to kill or capture Mohamed Farrah Aidid, a local warlord, leader of the Habr Gidr clan, who was preventing international relief agencies from properly distributing food in famine-decimated Somalia.

Trying to pluck one well-hidden person from the midst of a very sympathetic populace is not so easy, as we learned then and have re-learned in the case of Ossama bin Ladin. The U.S. began to settle for picking off top Aidid aids.

This battle bagan when U.S. forces learned that two Aidid lieutenants were meeting in a building near the center of the Aidid-controlled section of Mogadishu. The plan called for Delta forces to take the building and capture the men, for army rangers to secure the corners of the block containing the target building, and for black Hawk helicopters to provide overhead cover for the rangers.

It was a reasonably good plan, but it had one very serious weakness. It turned out that the Black Hawks were very vulnerable to fire from rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), a cheap and reliable Soviet made weapons system. RPGs are as common as dirt in third world countries, and Aidid's forces had plenty of them. Two of the Black Hawks were shot down by RPG fire, and two more were damaged so badly that they had to crash land back at the U.S. base. In trying to retrieve the downed Black Hawk pilots and crews (or their bodies), the rangers and Delta forces got shot to hell by an extremely hostile city full of AK-47-toting Somalis.

It is an amazing story, well told by Mark Bowden. Part of the irony and horror of the situation is that we were only trying to help, we were only trying to do good. Yet we ended up getting 19 of our own boys killed and 70 others wounded, and killing perhaps (no one knows for sure) 500 Somalis. The moral to the story is that if you're trying to do good, send missionaries. The army is not a missionary force. The purpose of the army is to kill people, and it should never be deployed unless U.S. national security is implicated, which it was not in Somalia.