Incidentally, I got out my DVD of the movie, and checked out the other two scenes ralph was asking about (the femoral artery scene having been covered already). They didn’t say anything about the guy with the tape on the roof of his car, but they do talk about the cheering Somalians around the stadium:
Van Arsdale does note, however, that they weren’t running by the time they got back to the stadium, but were riding in vehicles. (Van Arsdale: If I had to run all the way back, I’d still be running.)
I read the book before the movie was ever heard of - absolutely excellent. I enjoyed the movie and it is on the shelf not 10 feet from this very chair.
We could argue the success or failure of the mission in Mogadishu that day but never reach a conclusion. Read WWII or Vietnam military experiences and you’ll find mistakes and failed plans in every theatre. Sadly that is armed conflict, things do not go according to plan.
One major problem that day in Mogadishu was US communications. The soldiers on the ground could not talk by radio directly to the helicopters 100 feet overhead. They could see each other but it was no help.
Instead the soldiers spoke to their command centre which then radioed through to choppers but that could involve a minutes delay by which time the rescue column was another block further on. Thus a left turn command towards a major intersection instead led the vehicles into dense narrow streets a block further away.
The actual rescue column never reached the besieged soldiers at all, and it was almost by luck that the humvees already in the operation found the guys.
There is one scene in the movie where a soldier (driver) is pulled out of an armored car(?) with a live RPG embedded in his body. In the book that is fully described and is chilling. To complicate matters here was a gravely wounded man with a live bomb in him who had to be triaged and brought back to the hanger, potentially killing everyone around at any moment. Sadly he died after he was brought back.
Ashley Pomeroy, you must have watched a different movie than I did. I have no idea what you’re going on about, and your political screed is misplaced and perplexing. I did not pay attention to the director, was not aware it was the same guy who did Alien and Blade Runner. This movie predates my attention to directors as a gauge of what to expect in a movie.
I watched the movie, and it inspired me to read the book. I felt the movie captured the essence and feel, if not being 100% accurate.
ralph124c, 19 lives and two helicopters against how many Somalis that were slaughtered in the streets by a constant barrage from helicopters? That’s what I mean by military success. It was one of the most one-sided body counts in US history. And yes, they didn’t capture Aidid in that raid, but did take the stronghold and a lot of intel and personnel captive. Those opinions aren’t just mine, they are expressed in the book.
But yes, it was a clusterfuck of miscommunication, and utterly futile ultimately in the larger scheme. And it was a political nightmare, nevermind the loss of soldiers and the parade of bodies and the holding of one hostage. It was such a disaster that for a while the military wanted to brush it under a rug and pretend it didn’t happen.
I am sure (or at least hope) that a great deal was learned by Western military command structures from the US actions in Mogadishu. As a civilian it beggars belief that troops on the ground cannot directly talk to the support guys in the air but what do I know…
The most valuable lesson of the actions in Somalia is that it is an example of US troops serving in a place where there is no government, no oil, no large expanse of valuable land. Young men died simply trying to bring sanity and safety to armed chaos.
Fair analysis. What the book went into (and the movie did not) was :did the US command ever think about the people we were supposed to be helping? Take the helicopter patrols over the central market-the prop wash would regularly blow these poor people’s produce/stocks into the street. If you are surviving on the equivalent of $10/day, are you going to feel affection for American soldiers that have destroyed your market stand? If that happened to me,I’d be ready to kill the first American I could find. In short, we killed a lot of innocent people, and messed up a lot of people’s lives. We also destroyed the local economy, by dumping tons of free food on the market-local farmers just stopped growing-as there was no market for their produce 9why work if food is free?). We are about to repeat the same thing in Syria, unfortunately.
Yeah I also came away from the movie with a strong “What a waste” feeling. I saw it as a group of soldiers doing their best with a clusterfuck. I did not see it as a glorification of war or fighting in any way. It showed the soldiers in a good light but a believable one IMO. They were fighting for each other and noting else. Once in the fight the reasons go away and they are left to deal with the fuck ups of others.
With regards to the actuality versus the fiction. Two instances I remember from listening to the commentary track from the real guy behind the Tom Sizemore, McKnight, character. When he was shot he didn’t go back out. He basically said he was shot and that was that for him. Also when the soldiers where on the way back in to the stadium one group did not pull away leaving the others to run in on their own. He said this didn’t not happen and went against all military procedures and training. There were guys with tea etc. where they got there and this was quite surreal to the soldiers after their experiences.
There were two separate efforts in Somalia. One was the United Nations peacekeeping force that was giving food to the starving poor and trying to mitigate the warlord activities. The second was a separate US mission to hunt down and capture or kill the Warlord Aidid. The US troops were not there to “help the people” so much as accomplish that specific mission. It was supposed to be a quick mission, but they kept running into delays in getting real intel on where Aidid would be so they could make the strike.
It was the clusterfuck of that raid, however, that put the already confused US population into a political situation that could not be contained.
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I am sure (or at least hope) that a great deal was learned by Western military command structures from the US actions in Mogadishu.
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I don’t know myself, only what I read. The book says that the military was trying to bury the incident and pretend it didn’t happen, because of the political disaster. It took efforts that eventually became the book and movie that finally got them to grudgingly go back and assess the situation for lessons learned. I, too, share your dismay at the complications they faced due to their own command structure and communications lines. I have no insight into how things currently work.