1993’s calamitous Black Hawk Down incident saw 18 US soldiers killed and 73 wounded, leading to a quick military withdrawal from Somalia. Less than a month ago, the US African Command (AFRICOM) announced a new deployment of US ground troops to Somalia, and despite presenting it as a “non-combat” operation, we already have our first casualties.
Pentagon officials confirmed today that a Navy SEAL was killed and two others wounded by “small arms fire” while conducting an operation west of the Somali capital of Mogadishu. These are the first US deaths in the country in 24 years.
The claims that this was a deployment for “simple training” fell apart pretty quickly as well, with officials saying today’s casualties happened during “an assault on an al-Shabaab compound,” meaning the US troops were directly in combat roles at the time.
The Pentagon still tried to shrug this off as something short of a “combat operation” by insisting the troops weren’t scheduled to enter the compound, but were to just stand outside and “advise and assist.” Officials are trying to blame the casualties on the troops “not taking cover fast enough” when they were dropped right next to the compound and a gunfight broke out.
America First huh? Hows that working out?
You know it was a successful raid because a navy seal got killed. We can’t blemish his record by saying it was another wasted death. Was he married? Trump might need a prop.
They took the risk by joining the military. They paid the price. They died in vain.
go home and fight for freedom
i am encouraged nowadays by these comments. i’ve saying stuff like this for year and i get threatened for being ‘unamercan’…Now, its turning,finally..i hope its not too late…
The American people who don’t pay attention to world affairs in general (which unfortunately is like 80%) could really care less and actually want the U.S. military to engage everywhere because to them this is sport and entertainment. And because they are generally chickenhawk insecure people, they want to take it out on other people as long as they can justify it in their minds that we are fighting evil based on what the govt tells them. Sad.