h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Great to see an article about this.

The one gripe I'd have was it seems to concentrate on the U.S. without much attention or even recognition of the fact UN forces in Somalia were not all American - albeit that the US largely instigated the depolyment and non-UN military interventions by a (non UN) US force, culminating in the Day of the Rangers/Blackhawk Down/Battle of Mogadishu debacle was very important in the eventual outcome. And for that matter in 1994 a UAE officer is quoted as saying "Like the Gulf War, this is an American operation all the way down. I'm ashamed to be here. But I have no choice. Of course, I'm not going to argue with anybody. But I will not shoot anyone. These people are my brothers and sisters". (The not very reputable source is http://www.peacemagazine.org/archive/v10n2p06.htm).

As a New Zealander, I'd quite understand if the small contribution of the RNZAF's Andovers was over looked, and our ambassador leading the mission that recomended withdrawal was over looked, (and positively delighted if the role of the Long Range Desert Group in inspiring Somalian "Technical"s was forgotten ). I'm sure Canada will be ever keener for the arrest of 6 of its soldiers to be forgotten.

However I imagine some other nations - especially those who rescued the surrounded American force from its own incompetence might be a little miffed at their lack of recognition. UNITAF had 24,000 U.S. troops and another 13,000 from other countries. By the time of UNOSOM II there were 17,700 troops in the United States Joint Task Force in Somalia - not under UN control. UNOSOM II had a strength of 28,000, (plus 2,000 odd civilians). As well as the U.S. it was drawn from Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Botswana, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Kuwait, Jordan, Malaysia, Morocco, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Zimbabwe. Only Sweden, Belgium and France withdrew their 2,200 troops before the U.S. abandoned Somalia. - the other nations maintained a presence for a further year until the UN withdrew.

Hope that helps the U.S. in its attempts to share the blame around .

The U.N.s version of history can be seen at
http://www.un.org/Depts/DPKO/Missions/unosomi.htm
http://www.un.org/Depts/DPKO/Missions/unosom2b.htm.

Cheers

Thanks for the added info. That's a fair criticism. I did take a pretty narrow view of the affair. There's just enough info there to justify my rant I think.

JTG