A Cautionary Tale of Paternalism at its Worst

Rating: Null/10 (29 January 2003)

If the leaders of the United States have a particular failing, it is that they assume they know what is best for every other country and every other culture. In *Black Hawk Down*, the story of the failure of U.S. Forces to bring down the ruthless dictatorial warlord Aidid in famine-stricken Somalia in 1993, this is portrayed with relentless fury and unvarnished ugliness, by portraying the failed raid in Mogudishu in October of 1993 that took the lives of 19 "elite" U.S. troops.
This is not Ridley Scott's best movie as entertainment (although the war buffs may enjoy the gore), nor is it entirely faithful to the book about the raid, but, even so, it may go down in movie history as one of our finest film morality tales of our failure to appreciate the lessons of history. We didn't get it after Vietnam, we didn't get it after Nicaragua and El Salvador, and we didn't get it in Somalia, either. The movie demonstrates how we indoctrinate the rank and file to never leave a brother (or sister) behind, which in the case of this raid, set up a trap that left these well-trained, and certainly very brave troops, who were supposed to apprehend some specific prisoners within one hour, at the mercy of Aidid's militia for almost 20 hours, trapped in a hostile portion of Mogudishu. All of their training and bravery still left them ill-prepared to handle a situation like this one.
And in these times when the talk of this kind of war is all around us again, when our leaders refuse to appreciate the diplomatic options available and see war as the only option to bring down another ruthless dictator, all I can think is this what our troops will face in the streets of Baghdad? I, for one, am not interested in seeing brave men and women facing that kind of environment only to come home in a body bag for a cause that may or may not actually prevail.
It is noted in the credits at the end of the movie what most of us know now as history. Clinton removed the troops two weeks after the failed raid. And Aidid was assassinated by his own people in 1996. Sometimes, as much as we might want to, we simply cannot solve all the world's problems, and Ridley Scott certainly makes the case here that using war in particular to solve these problems is most especially NOT the answer.