Neal's been alternating between his own unique blogger voice, and more serious commentary from an anonymous soldier friend, and people like author Christian Bauman, whose book I just started reading (and who makes an appearance in the comments here sometimes). Brief review when I'm done.
Here's an excerpt from today:
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had a fair number of friends who were involved in the firefight that became known as The Battle of Mogadishu. By most accounts, the battle was a defeat of American forces by Somali warlords. Osama bin Laden himself used this battle and the subsequent withdrawal of American forces from the region as evidence that Americans did not have the stomach for the ugly realities of sustained combat.
But Rangers and other Special Operations soldiers I’ve talked with who were in this battle describe a scene very similar to the one in both the book and film Black Hawk Down, with one notable exception.
“We killed a shitload of guys,” they say.
Indeed, some estimates have put the Somali body count upwards of 1,000 dead when compared to the American total of 18 Special Operations soldiers lost. Successive Somali assaults during the day and night of 3 and 4 October were cut down by the small band of besieged Rangers and their attack helicopters in the air.
Les Aspin resigned over a much smaller Clusterfuck than has gone on so far. Back in those days, the SCLM showed the bodies being dragged through the streets.