Are Americans Doom to Repeat All Their Stupid Mistakes?
Was watching the first half of Black Hawk Down and it occurred to me that in 1993, the media never really released the story of how the American forces planned their extradition mission of two of Aidid's top aids. If Ridley Scott's depictions of the events are accurate as stated by him then the Americans have repeated their mistakes again. Back in '63, the Americans entered Vietnam; filling the power void left by the French after their major defeat by the Vietcong. Feeling smug after their victories in WWII and Korea, the Americans basically underestimated the "simple, poor and uneducated" Vietnamese of the North. And look where that got the Americans, from late '76 the Americans were fleeing in droves from the invading North Vietnamese army.

Now travel forward to 1993 in Mogadishu, Somalia. Smug from the victories in Grenada, Nicaragua and the Gulf War, the Americans deployed to the 'Mog. They would underestimat the "simple, poor and uneducated" Somalians once again. As in 'Nam, women and children often were combantants as well or were readily used as a screening force. The somalians knew that the American soldiers had orders not to shoot "civilians", women and children and they exploited that weakness/ limitation to the limit. Guess the Yanks never could figure that the "uneducated" Somalians could think of such strategies to defeat the mighty Americian war machine. From the start, the Americans were under surveillance by spies from the various warlords. Their movements were reported back to the warlords and they were prepared for their arrival. Another note to keep in mind, in both incidents the American government refused to allow full military sanction to accomplish the mission/ campaign. This meant that certain tactics, weapons or vehicles were not allowed as they would promote too much bad press.

It's funny how they are the most powerful nation on this earth and yet they can't do something simple as learning from their mistake. Oh well....