This is the true story of the Battle of Mogadishu, the longest sustained ground battle involving USA soldiers since the Vietnam War. An elite force of 120 USA Delta units and Ranger infantry were dropped into Mogadishu on 3 October 1993, to abduct two of Somalian warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid's lieutenants. Instead, two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters were shot down and what was expected to take an hour lasted fifteen, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Somalians, eighteen Americans and hundreds more wounded.
Special Agent Matti
FUBAR.
USA: they still haven't figured out that no one believes their hype other than themselves. They still haven't figured out that most people don't like them because they are loud, arrogant, intrusive, opinionated, egotistical wankers. They still haven't figured out that every country that speaks English doesn't speak the same language that they do. They believe that they are right, that they deserve to be right and that everything will turn out right. After Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, etc., they still haven't figured out that the rest of the world doesn't want them to be on top. They may never learn.
War: things started going downhill for soldiers on the day that the Generals stopped being on the front line. When you take a Commander away from their troops the Commander stops treating them like human beings and starts treating them like human resources. Strategies become increasingly grandiose and increasingly inappropriate; generals forget what it is like in the trenches and start believing their own prophesies. If 10 men can hold a 3 storey building then 20 men can hold a 6 storey building. Intelligence says that the enemy have no heavy weapons. It will take 30 minutes for reinforcements to drive to your location.
Murphy: what makes anyone think that any plan by mice or man will not go astray? Chaos theory says that a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil causes a monsoon in Malaysia. You think that a mission that involves sending 100 soldiers into an enemy stronghold with 10,000 troops will go according to plan? Oi.
Mogadishu: Somalia belongs to the Somalis. If you go to their country and try to tell them what to do, they will tell you what to do in far less friendly terms. The last time an invading army fought and won in another country's civil war was... well, I am still waiting to hear back on that one.
Politics: politicians make Generals look like your dear, old grandmother. They have no scruples, no sense of honour, no integrity and no value for human life. They will tell you to fight a war and then take away the weapons you need to win because using them will look bad on the 6 o'clock news. They will order you not to tell your allies that you're going on a dangerous mission because your allies don't need to know, after all, you don't want them to steal any of the limelight.
SNAFU.
MA 15+ (High level violence)
144 minutes (2:24 hours)
Film: 21 February 2002
DVD retail: 21 August 2002
VHS rental: 21 August 2002
DVD retail: 14 May 2003 - Special edition