Conective Text Essay

An ordinary American viewing the current direction of armed conflict involving our military forces sees a much different landscape than in past decades. We now observe official Pentagon photos of Special Forces soldiers on horseback, riding alongside the Northern Alliance in the foothills of Afghanistan. They are dressed in Army fatigues but all have beards -- the marker of nearly all the men in the region. They 'blend into' the local population. These Americans have made liaison with allied clan leaders, trained the Afghans in the use of coordinated air-land attack and engaged in firefights with the Taliban when attacked. They have taken the lead in routing al Qaeda terrorists out of the extensive cave complexes in Afghanistan after the major opposition 'melted' into the landscape after being defeated on the ground by Alliance Afghans in Mazar-e-Sharif, Kabul, and Kandahar.

Few Americans know any of these men. Their missions are all classified secret. Even their parents and spouses know nothing of what they do. To them, the soldiers are known only as 'operators.' They have a long history, however, and have been deployed all over the world in 12-man A-teams. In the past decade they have been deployed in over 100 countries around the globe. They were an integral part of the operation in October 1993 to capture two of Mohamed Farrah Aidid's top aides. Aidid was the Somali warlord who controlled Mogadishu.

Before U.S. soldiers faced substantial hostile fire in Somalia, Pakistani military peacekeepers under U.N. control were ambushed by Warlord Aidid's guerrillas, with 24 killed and 54 wounded. Many of the Pakistanis were butchered and mutilated, with bodies dismembered and eyes gouged out [1]. Our troops in Somalia were placed under the command of foreign nations via the mask of the United Nations. They were asked by our politicians to first, provide protection for the distribution of United Nations humanitarian aid to a starving populace. Second, after securing the area and assuring the humanitarian mission, they were asked to expand their mission to find and capture (if not kill) a troublesome warlord, General Aidid.

Then during a battle in which several of Aidid's high-level accomplices are captured and eighteen of our Rangers were killed, one U.S. Ranger was captured, one was dragged through the streets while his corpse [2] was stoned, pounded with sticks, and spat upon by the populace, and other dead U.S. soldiers reportedly had their flesh rendered [3] and displayed by mobs before the populace. Indeed, all of the bodies were recovered eventually, but some remains were so badly disfigured that only through special tests could they be identified. The bodies of all five Americans slain near one location [4] "were desecrated by the Somalis, although according to Army officials, subsequent autopsies indicated that the men had been shot dead before their corpses were defiled." Small consolation to their families and those who may be called on to participate in similar activities in the future.

After this battle, our troops were asked to back down, and, indeed, escort and transport [5],[6], Aidid, via air, to a conference in another country. Finally, these troops are asked to withdraw by a time certain, dictated not by original design but by demands of the American people and the absence of a sense of purpose by our President and Congress. Everything that a generation learned about modern warfare in Vietnam and the Gulf War had been completely disregarded by the Clinton administration and Congress. Our fighting men were being placed in dangerous environments for which their advantages in arms and training were negated. In the words of a young American soldier [7] (in a letter home), who was killed in the Ranger raid on Aidid's headquarters, "I've got some horrible news. In today's intell brief, we received some real upsetting news. Tonight we are supposed to get hit by 150 Somali gunmen. The men are said to have women and children holding hands walking in front of the gunmen as they shoot -- sort of a human shield. I can't tell you how worried I am on this. Don't get me wrong but I'm scared, real damn scared. I knew the day would come when I might have to shoot someone and also knew the day would come when someone would shoot at me. I have no problem dropping the hammer on someone that is going to try to kill me but women and children that would be forced to walk into us. It's a no win situation. I don't know if I'm going to be able to open up on a crowd of helpless people. If we don't then they'll kill us and if we do we kill innocent people." The mother [8] of a young Ranger killed in the same raid on Aidid's headquarters has published a letter accusing President Clinton of "...allowing U.S. involvement to drift