On October 3rd, 1993, US forces raided Mogadishu, Somalia, in an effort to capture the top aides and advisors of Mohammad Farah Adid. Adid, a Somali warlord since 1991, had starved his “people” for two years (how he could call them his people while continuing a systematic genocide amounts to nothing more than xenophobic control on Adid’s part). Obivously, the UN, US and Pakistani forces had political and ideological beef with him. Eventually, when his men fatally clashed with UN and American forces on numerous occasions, the US sought to take him out once and for all. Members of the US Army Rangers and Delta Force were dropped into Mogadishu (or the “Mog” as they called it) and in minutes captured some of Adid’s highest-ranked officers. What happened next, however, changed the US forces’ simple in-and-out extraction plan to an overnight battle that resulted in the deaths of nineteen US soldiers and over 1,000 Somali militia.
The novel is not for the fainthearted. Men are blasted in half, lose thumbs, legs, are shot, maimed, and tortured. A rocket-propelled grenade pierces an American soldier’s side and does not explode. His fellow soldiers have to move him carefully back to base with the live round protruding from his chest. Bowden doesn’t ignore the Somali side of the conflict either. He details stories of Mogadishu residents who witnessed and participated in the attack that day. I could understand the Somalis’ resentment of US soldiers, especially their helicopters pilots, who would fly low over the city, the rotating blades literally sucking babies from their mothers’ arms and blowing them down the street.
By painting vivid, striking pictures with his prose and deft pacing, Bowden puts the reader directly in Black Hawk Down’s action. It is as if you are a cameraman sprinting, ducking, and dodging side-by-side with American soldiers. I was caught up in it page-after-page. I do admit, however, it was at times overwhelming. I got lost in the rapid descriptions of who moved where and why. That is a minor criticism. The strength of Bowden’s novel is his characters.
In my interpretation of his characterizations, the soldiers in Black Hawk Down may not have been the best or brightest the United States had to offer. One soldier spent most of his armed service making coffee and shuffling papers before joining the extraction team. In most scenes, the US Army Rangers and Delta Force operatives are at each other’s throats. One Delta Force member defies a direct order from a Ranger of a higher rank. Yet, these characterizations do not disrespect these men, but attempt to measure their valor as starting point for their heroic progressions during the battle. In different circumstances they could be us if we chose to be them. My wonder and respect comes from how such average men eclipsed themselves by their above-average dedication and sacrifice. I was moved by their bravery. These men did not run gung-ho into Somalia wanting to instigate democracy. They went simply swearing to protect their friends and buddies, because they like a family.
In detailing this extraction mission gone horribly wrong, Bowden casts no blame on those who may rightly deserve it, the generals and politicians in Washington, and the Clinton regime who tried too hard to be Team America: World Police. The novel is better for it, powerful, suspenseful stuff. I was too immersed in the action and characters to give it much critical thought, but when I finished it, I came to a new understanding. Whatever poor decisions are made by top-military brass, we citizens safe and warm in our beds at home should realize the average American soldier is not to blame. He or she is serving our country, doing a job we would rather not do, in an effort to protect and defend principles they hold sacred. We have the luxury of debating these principles at home, but like Eric Bana’s character says in Ridley Scott’s fine 2001 film adaptation of Bowden’s book, “Once that first bullet goes past your head, politics go right out the window.” A-
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