If you can remember that far back, you will most likely recall a scene from about May, 1993, when President Clinton 'took' the South Lawn at the White House, leading a distinguished group of military officers to a mike and podium set up there for the purpose of announcing that the 'humanitarian effort' in Somalia, graciously begun by the previous administration, was now completed.
Rush made fun of the march across the South Lawn on his television show. I'll see if I can't find a photo of it somewhere. It was ludicrous.
But what I'm getting at, is if Clinton says the mission was completed in May, of 1993, what the heck were [u]any[/u] American servicemen doing in Mogadishu in October of that year?
Easy answer - 'nationbuilding' of course.
And while the Clinton Administration was not at all reluctant to use armored pcs at Mt. Carmel Church, near Waco, Texas, his Secretary of Defense Les Aspin refused to allow any heavy armor in Somalia.
The only heavy armor available in Mogadishu during the 'Black Hawk Down' firefight were Portugese, IIRC. And, IIRC, we had the dickens of a time getting them to come to our men's aid!
Eric The(JustAnotherReason,AmongMillions,ToHateClinton!)Hun[>]:)]