"President Clinton Thursday ordered 5,300 new combat troops and an aircraft carrier to Somalia "to protect our troops and to complete our mission,"

"In his first public explanation of why American troops were in that
lawless land and when they would be getting out, Clinton said he had
rejected calls from Congress and elsewhere to "cut and run" from
Somalia because he believed that both Somali lives and American
credibility were at stake."

"This past week's events make it clear that even as we prepare to
withdraw from Somalia, we need more strength there," Clinton said. "We
need more armor, more airpower, to ensure that our people are safe and
that we can do our job."

-------

History has a way of repeating itself. Have we learned the lessons of
History? Or should we just trust Hillary and the Democrats when they
"vow" to get us out of Iraq and not to invade Iran. ......

Clinton Orders 5,300 Troops to Somalia; Vows End in 6 Months
By John M. Broder
Los Angeles Times
Friday, October 8, 1993

WASHINGTON

"President Clinton Thursday ordered 5,300 new combat troops and an
aircraft carrier to Somalia "to protect our troops and to complete our
mission," and at the same time he announced that he would bring all
American combat forces home by March 31.

He said the objective of the new deployment was to give the Somalis a
reasonable prospect of survival in conditions of near-anarchy and
factional warfare. Regardless of the success of the new mission, he
vowed to end the U.S. military presence in Somalia in six months.

In his first public explanation of why American troops were in that
lawless land and when they would be getting out, Clinton said he had
rejected calls from Congress and elsewhere to "cut and run" from
Somalia because he believed that both Somali lives and American
credibility were at stake.

"We face a choice," the president said. "Do we leave when the job gets
tough or when the job is well done? Do we invite the return of mass
suffering or do we leave in a way that gives the Somalis a decent
chance to survive?"

Clinton argued that the United States had an obligation to try to
complete a humanitarian effort begun 10 months ago. "We started this
mission for the right reasons and we're going to finish it in the
right way," Clinton said.

He also said he would not withdraw now with American soldiers in
Somali hands or listed as missing. One American serviceman is known to
be held by the forces of warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid, and six others
are missing from an encounter on Sunday in which 13 U.S. soldiers were
slain.

Clinton's 11-minute address from the Oval Office, which was carried
live on the four major networks at 5 p.m. EDT, came after American
television viewers were shown film of a battered and captured airman
being held in Aidid's custody and the body of a soldier being dragged
through the dusty streets of Mogadishu.

If the United States withdrew immediately, the president said, some of
the other 30 nations that have contributed to the 28,000-strong U.N.
peacekeeping force in Somalia would also bail out. Chaos would return
to the ravaged East African nation, he said, and starvation would soon
resume.

Moreover, Clinton added, American resolve and its role in the world
would rightly be called into question.

"Our own credibility with friends and allies would be severely
damaged," he said. "Our leadership in world affairs would be
undermined at the very time when people are looking to America to help
promote peace and freedom in the post-Cold War world. And all around
the world, aggressors, thugs and terrorists will conclude that the
best way to get us to change our policies is to kill our people. It
would be open season on Americans."

Twelve U.S. soldiers were killed and 78 wounded in a failed raid on a
meeting of Aidid loyalists in Mogadishu Sunday night, and one of the
wounded died Thursday in a U.S. military hospital in Germany. In a
separate incident Wednesday night, one soldier was killed and 14
wounded when a mortar shell slammed into a U.S. encampment near the
Mogadishu airport.

Mortar and rocket-propelled grenade attacks on U.N. positions in
southern Mogadishu have become an almost nightly occurrence in the
past few months, but Thursday's incident was the first to result in
U.S. casualties.

A U.N. civilian spokesman in Mogadishu said that non-essential U.N.
staff were being flown out of Mogadishu to Nairobi in neighboring
Kenya. He said he did not know how many people were being evacuated.

Clinton said he was ordering 1,700 combat troops to reinforce the
roughly 5,300 troops now serving on the ground in Somalia. Beyond
that, he said he was dispatching 3,600 Marines to be stationed
offshore.

An additional 104 tanks and armored personnel carriers will be shipped
to provide greater protection for ground forces, Clinton said. He also
ordered an aircraft carrier to take up position in the Indian Ocean
off the Somali coast to provide air cover for military operations.

"This past week's events make it clear that even as we prepare to
withdraw from Somalia, we need more strength there," Clinton said. "We
need more armor, more airpower, to ensure that our people are safe and
that we can do our job." He stressed that they would all be under U.S.
-- not U.N. -- command.

-------------

namaste;
bodhi
http://psychedelictourist.blogspot.com


Sanity wrote:
On Apr 29, 3:59 am, ms quark cable <thehowep...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Apr 28, 6:17?pm, ?? <psychedelictour...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

huh????

"To leave now we would send a message to terrorists and other
potential adversaries around the world that they can change our
policies by killing our people.It would be open season on Americans."
-- Bill Clinton '93
just before he pulled out of Somalia

namaste;
bodhihttp://psychedelictourist.blogspot.com

This is answerable in any number of ways both to the non-linear mind
and satisfactorially in this non-linear world. I'll suggest two.

One is that you can't satisfy everyone, especially not Osama bin Laden
whose very dharma (life's work) it is to be dissatisfied with as well
as generate dissatisfaction within Islam about the United States no
matter what course the U.S. undertakes. So work forward to anyone or
any system of thought starting with the extreme of Bin Laden's
absolute need to criticize absolutely and larder on the anti US
propaganda through to any critic's even trivial reactivity which
always in some minimal way faults the US whether or no, and add on the
unpredictability theory under which even our best friends occasionally
bow and a country could wear itself out in at least pseudo-but-surely-
atheletic paranoia and diplomatic contortions.

Secondly: Though somewhat akin in its first of two concepts to that
idea above, this compound but anything-but-binary answer to the faux
problem tediously re-dunced-ified by this thread, what the US needs to
do is Ricky Nelson the damn thing. Of course what I mean is: "You
see you can't please everyone so you gotta please yourself." What
would please the US government was expressed clearly by the voters
last election and the present polls. This government for, by and of
the people would be most pleased to leave Iraq

And if a country were a practitioner of the very fine hebrew golden
rule, "That which is heinous to thee do to no one," then that country
would certainly be righteous in these matters, though second guess
to beat the band.

"An eye for an eye" was King Hamurabi's idea and predates the Mosaic
Torah.
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." - Ghandi
Hmmm: If Dubya and Cheney and "them" are truly doing unto others as
they would have others do unto them, they are truly perverse.

Go win hearts and minds by knocking down the doors of strangers with
the bumpers of Hummers? And that's about the least violent thing the
Coalition of the Willing is doing. "We have to finish the job!" of
creating another police state.

As the maggot pukes.

Peace,
Sanity Clause

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: After a week of "Free Speech" on CBS, no Democratic or liberal voices on national security
    ... I had forgotten how much Clinton got criticized for Somalia. ... Do you think Bush will send a massive number of troops into Iraq in January 2009? ... DORNAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.) ... I want to put in the Record the six points that then-Secretary of Defense Cap Weinberger said should be followed before American men and women are committed in combat or near a combat area. ...
    (rec.arts.tv)
  • Hillary Sez Troops Stay in Iraq if She is Elected
    ... Clinton Sees Some Troops Staying in Iraq if She Is Elected ... interests in Iraq" that would require a continuing deployment of American ...
    (alt.politics.bush)
  • Re: OT: Retraction and apology
    ... A UN food mission which wasn't getting our troops killed was agreed to by Bush I. Clinton sucked up to the UN by agreeing to arrest the warlords but failed to give our troops the equipment they asked for and which was readily available. ... Clinton had us running for cover shortly after. ... That was a UN mission that Bush had declined but which Clinton accepted. ... Once Aidid was in custody, Delta Force would whisk him to a third-country ship off the coast of Somalia, where the warlord would be tried for murder. ...
    (rec.outdoors.rv-travel)
  • Re: OT: Retraction and apology
    ... The troops killed in Somalia were sent there by Clinton to do the bidding of his pals at the UN. ... Maybe you should recheck your facts LZ, daddy Bush sent the troops into Samolia in December before Clinton became prez. ... Clinton sent the Special Forces that were to be used to arrest the warlords. ...
    (rec.outdoors.rv-travel)
  • Re: "President Clinton Thursday ordered 5,300 new combat troops and an aircraft carrier to Somalia "
    ... Somalia because he believed that both Somali lives and American ... withdraw from Somalia, we need more strength there," Clinton said. ... Clinton Orders 5,300 Troops to Somalia; ...
    (alt.gathering.rainbow)