Black Hawk Down is, as Bowden himself so eloquently describes it, “a history of modern war”. In his book, he tells the story of maybe not the worst but certainly the longest firefight since the Vietnam War that took place in Mogadishu, Somalia. He describes the events through the eyes of the Unified Task Force, using historical war documents to accurately paint a portrait of the hell that the men experienced. He also utilized multiple articles that he had written for the newspaper The Philadelphia Inquirer about the topic. Bowden was not on the ground in Mogadishu at the time, so he cannot act as a primary source. However, his account, built on interviews with battle participants and Army records, has great importance nevertheless.
Examined from a political perspective, the book raises important questions on American foreign policy, and
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A humanitarian mission and a peacekeeping operation developed by the UN was established after a force of 20,000 U.S. Marines restored order, and the U.S. forces left Somalia to allow more room for the United Nations to take over. However, after the United States withdrew, a warlord named Muhammed Farah Aidid (whom the soldiers were sent to capture) began attacking UN forces and capturing food shipments so he could feed his armies. The U.S. had to get re-involved, so they sent Task Force Ranger, a group of elite operationists with skills ranging from helicopter flying to fighting (and who all had war experience) with the mission of capturing Aidid. On October 3, 1993 the Task Force were tasked with executing a raid to arrest two of Farah Aidid’s most important lieutenants. The mission became troubled after the raiding force encountered heavy resistance and two American helicopters were shot down, resulting in a night-long battle in which 19 Americans