Sadly, OO, those poor sods in Mog were faced by a very angry and undisciplined rabble of urban militia who were by no means "drug crazed zombies" - far from it, (drugs were not a part of their culture) tho the women and children bit is accurate, and the Rangers had far better than "a few harriers" (though they had those too, yet they were seldom seen over the city) to help them but these were simply not deployed. The indecision and lack of decisiveness (not to say shillyshallying) of the US military there at the time had to be seen to be believed.
Unless my memory does me a great injustice there were present in Mogadishu at the time at least one of those lumpy, dark coloured C130s with odd bits sticking out of their sides. They used to drone around in circles all night long - I saw one let rip briefly one night and almost crapped myself at the noise even though it was shooting away from me. Apparently it took down much of a city block in about 3-4 seconds. Whether that was before or after the blackhawk incident I can no longer recall, though I think it was probably before.
US tactics became increasingly spineless (if that was possible) afterwards, as far as I remember.
Had rule .303 been established by Uncle Sam from the start (as the French, Pakistanis and Nigerians had done up until December 93 when the US Marines staged their ludicrous theatrical night-time assault onto the beach by the airport in the unopposed glare of the Klieg lights of the world's tipped off press) things would probably be entirely different now...
But what the hey? That's just hindsight. And as blindingly clear today as it was to all there at the time. Except UNOSOM, led by Uncle Sam.
Last edited by Agaricus bisporus; 13th May 2010 at 20:01.