Leave No Man Behind
By Page W. H. Brousseau IV
TIMES STAFF WRITER
Heroism, it seems, is more common in days of uncertainty. After al-Qaeda attacked the United States and killed thousands of our fellow citizens, tales of heroes were spreading literally hours after the rubble had settled.
There were those who died saving others, the hundreds of New York firemen who ran up scores of floors of the burning buildings to reach the injured. Officers in the Pentagon crawling through smoke filled hallways looking for injured or lost comrades.
There were calls of firemen refusing to leave injured after it was apparent the building they were in would not stand much longer. The ordinary citizens who helped the injured down the stairs, sometimes 70 stories or more, all the while being passed by others, are heroes in their own right.
Lest we not forget some of the bravest actions of the day by the passengers on Flight 93. After learning of the attacks, with a battle cry of "Let's roll" they launched the first counterattack of the war. They were not soldiers or mercenaries. They were accountants and stewardesses. They were Americans who stood by her when she was attacked.
Nine years ago, in poor, war-torn city off the Indian Ocean named Mogadishu, American bravery was shown to the world. The 1999 book, "Black Hawk Down," by Mark Bowden, now a movie, explicitly details what Americans do for each other when called upon.
When Marine and SEAL units landed ashore in 1992, and were met with fierce resistance from the TV crews assembled to greet them. Somalia was divided under clan leaders in a perpetual civil war, the international relief was used as a weapon to starve dissidents of one clan or another and to reward those who submitted to the armed rule of the warlord that controlled the food.
After the UN mission to deliver the food to the starving was fulfilled, the Marines left and Army units took their place. At that time Mogadishu's leading and most powerful warlord, Mohammed Farrah Aidid, began a more brazen approach to the American forces.
Aidid started to use the radio to tell the citizens of Somalia the Americans were there to convert them to Christianity. This propaganda, in a country where the only thing sacred is Islam and the only intact buildings after years of war are the mosques, helped to slowly turn the opinion of the Mogadishu citizens, against the US and UN forces.
The leaders of the US and UN forces decided to eliminate the radio station. The raid was tipped off to Aidid and 24 Pakistanis were killed then butchered and had their body parts strung about the streets. By this time the competing warlords, some in Aidid's own clan and local religious leaders had decided Aidid needed to be eliminated, and met to discuss his downfall. Poor intelligence led the UN commander to believe they were plotting to destroy more UN personnel and US Cobra helicopters attacked the meeting leaving fifty dead.
When his opposition was eliminated, Aidid, now with support for opposing clans, could now focus his attention on the American and UN forces. After a remote controlled mine killed 4 US soldiers, the UN forces became more proactive.
Staging several successful "snatch and grab" missions, many of Aidid's lieutenants were now in UN custody. However, this incident only inflamed the population of Mogadishu, who by now saw Aidid as some sort of war hero and saw the UN, and in particular the American forces, as thugs, kidnapping their leaders. This is where the movie Black Hawk Down begins.
As anyone who read the book or saw the movie knows, the Rangers and Deltas would not leave anyone behind, even if they were dead. It takes a certain something to risk your life protecting someone injured on the battlefield, but to protect the body of a fallen comrade is a mission none of them questioned.
Master Sergeant Gary Gordon and Sergeant First Class Randy Shugart knew they faced insurmountable odds rushing to the second crash site, as hundreds of armed Somalis descended upon it, but they went, and because of them, the life of Chief Warrant Officer Mike Durant was saved.
Some on the Left are quick to point out it was our policy that got our men killed. They are quick to point to one-sided accounts of the events that transpired prior to Oct. 3, 1993.
Perhaps they feel jealous at their own cowardliness, or maybe they feel some sort of sympathy for thousands of the dead and wounded drugged-out Somalis who were trying to kill Americans. The 19 dead that day, "unfortunate losses" as President Bill Clinton called them, forced Clinton to recoil from using armed forces in a national defense role for the rest of his term.
In 1996, Iran funds the bombing of the Khobar Towers Air Force barracks, leaving 19 dead and no military action is taken. In 1998, over 200 die in bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania by bin-Laden, and Clinton's response is an impotent cruise missile attack. In 2000, the USS Cole is attacked, again by bin-Laden, killing 17 sailors, and again no military response.
A new president and an attack on US soil has finally changed that policy.
Most people spend their entire lives never meeting a hero, the men and women in the military work side-by-side with them. The daily heroism of firemen and police largely goes unnoticed by the media.
But the lives they save are grateful, just as all Americans should be grateful to those in the military, who "leave no man behind" or those that see an opportunity to save life and simply utter, "let's roll."
© The Michigan Times 2002
