In a handwritten letter to me the day after the...
- Posted at 10:48 PM on Monday, May 3, 2010 by oh6j3ome
In a handwritten letter to me the day after the fight, General Garrison took full responsibility for his decision to go forward with the raid, outlining his reasons for the decision: the intelligence was excellent; the force was experienced; the capacity of the enemy was known; the tactics were appropriate; planning for contingencies had been done; an armored reaction force would have helped, but might not have reduced Ucasualties, because the task-force troops would not leave behind their fallen comrades, one of whom was pinned in the wreckage of his helicopterGarrison closed his letter by saying, The Mission was a successTargeted individuals were captured and extracted from the targetPresident Clinton and Secretary Aspin need to be taken off the blame line
I respected Garrison and agreed with his letter, except for the last pointThere was no way I could, or should, be taken off the blame lineI believe the raid was a mistake, because carrying it out in the daytime underestimated the strength and determination of Aidids forces and the attendant possibility of losing one or more of the helicoptersIn wartime, the risks would have been acceptableOn a peacekeeping mission, they were not, because the value of the prize was not worth the risk of significant casualties and the certain consequences of changing the nature of our mission in the eyes of both Somalis and AmericansArresting Aidid and his top men because the UN purple fendi bags forces couldnt do it was supposed to be incidental to our operations there, not its main purposeIt was worth doing under the right circumstances, but when I gave my consent to General Powells recommendation, I should also have required prior approval of the Pentagon and the White House for any operations of this magnitudeI certainly dont blame General Garrison, a fine soldier whose career was unfairly damagedThe decision he made, given his instructions, was defensibleThe larger implications of it should have been determined higher up
In the weeks ahead, I visited several of the wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Hospital and had two moving meetings with the families of the soldiers who had lost their livesIn one, I was asked tough questions by two grieving fathers, Larry Joyce and Jim Smith, a former Ranger who had lost a leg in VietnamThey wanted to know what their sons had died for and why we had changed courseWhen I gave the Medal of Honor, posthumously, to Delta snipers Gary Gordon and Randy Shugart for their heroism in trying to save Mike Durant and his helicopter crew, their families were still in great painShugarts father was furious at me, and angrily told me that I wasnt fit to be Commander in ChiefAfter the price hed paid, he could say anything he wanted as far as I was concernedI couldnt tell if he felt the way he did because I had not served in Vietnam, because I had approved the policy that led to the raid, or rolex replica watch because I had declined to go back after Aidid after October 3Regardless, I didnt believe the emotional, political, or strategic benefits of catching or killing Aidid justified further loss of life on either side, or a greater shifting of responsibility for Somalias future from the UN to the United States
After Black Hawk Down, whenever I approved the deployment of forces, I knew much more about what the risks were, and made much clearer what operations had to be approved in WashingtonThe lessons of Somalia were not lost on the military planners who plotted our course in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and other trouble spots of the postCold War world, where America was often asked to step in to stop hideous violence, and too often expected to do it without the loss of lives to ourselves, our adversaries, or innocent bystandersThe challenge of dealing with complicated problems like Somalia, Haiti, and Bosnia inspired one of Tony Lakes best lines: Sometimes I really miss the Cold War
I spent much of the rest of October dealing with the aftermath of Somalia and fending off efforts in Congress to limit my ability to commit American troops to Haiti and Bosnia
On the twenty-sixth we finally celebrated a light moment, Hillarys first birthday in the White HouseIt was a surprise costume partyHer staff had arranged for us to dress up like James and Dolley MadisonWhen she got back from a long day of health-care work, she was led fake d
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