Did Clinton do anything with the military you didn't like (delpoyment rela

[funkyflathead]

ated).

I didn't like the air war in Kosovo. Too many civlians died and too much infrastructure was damaged. They didn't really harm the Serb army that much as they were bombing from too high.

I did support Somalia, Haiti and Bosnia- even though Somalia went bad. These were peacekeeping missions that did more good than harm.

[benddem]

1. It is what he didn't do in Ruwanda

That makes me unhappy. I fully supported Bosnia and Haiti.

[Field Of Dreams]

4. Agreed

Clark really pushed for Rwanda involvement ... but in never happened.

[AP]

2. Somalia was Bush's gift to Clinton. It was BS.

Clinton probably should have put ground troups into Yugoslavia.

He also should have done something about Rwanda.

[tlb]

7. The Somalia mission is generally not understood.

It oversimplifies it to say it was Bush's mess for Clinton to clean up. There were in fact TWO Somalia missions, the Bush mission and the later one that blew up under Clinton. Both phases were undertaken under UN auspices, but under the authority of separate UN resolutions.



On 24 April the UN approved Resolution 751, which authorized humanitarian relief operations in the stricken country and established the United Nations Operations in Somalia, or UNOSOM.

The US operation, code-named RESTORE HOPE, began on 8 December 1992 under the direction of a Unified Task Force, or UNITAF. The I Marine Expeditionary Force was landed. UNITAF included U.S. and allied troops working together in one task force, but under U.S. And not UN direction.

Coalition forces including large components from France, Italy, Belgium, Morocco, Australia, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Canada soon joined U.S. Forces During the course of RESTORE HOPE, some 38,000 soldiers from 23 different nations and representatives from 49 different humanitarian relief operations

Operation RESTORE HOPE succeeded in its goal of bringing an end to mass starvation. Then UN diplomats began to press for a more active role of the military in confiscating weapons and in forcing some kind of political settlement. “Mission creep” began to enter the vocabulary of those serving in Somalia, and soon after the United States turned over the mission completely to the United Nations in May, the situation began to unravel.

On 26 March 1993, the United Nations passed Resolution 814 which considerably broadened its mandate to intervene in another country’s affairs. The UN was now intervening militarily in a peacemaking role under Chapter VII of its charter. The more frequently used Chapter VI addressed only the deployment of peacekeeping troops to reinforce a previously agreed upon settlement between warring parties. But Chapter VII dealt with peace enforcement and not merely peacekeeping. The resolution underlined the charters of the first UNOSOM mission and Operation RESTORE HOPE and that of the new mission, UNOSOM II.

UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali asked the Clinton Administration to assist him in capturing Aideed.

On 22 August 1993, the new Secretary of Defense, Les Aspin, directed the deployment of a joint special operations task force (JSOTF) to Somalia. These were the army rangers.

Blackhawk Down followed this.

[liberalmuse]

3. I supported stopping genocide via the U.N.

I feel the same about Rwanda--I wish Clinton and the U.N. would have intervened to stop the slaughter there. I supported helping the starving people in Somalia, but Bush I waited too long to help, blew it, then left the mess for Clinton to clean up. I didn't agree with Clinton carrying out Bush I's proposed military cut backs. I was in the military at the time, and was disappointed.

[AP]

5. The UN didn't step up. The US should have.

France should have fixed the mess they created. But nobody should have let what happened there happen.

[Silverhair]

6. He didn't give the guys what they needed in Somalia.

The military said they needed armor support and it was denied because it would look too provocative. And a lot of our guys got killed.

I didn't like Bosnia either, and I was extremely strongly against ground troops. I was in my congressman's office several times saying why we should not get involved on the ground.

I thought Haiti was a farce. They got rid of one bad dictator and the guy that there now isn't any better.