Gore's 'Ill-Considered' Somalia Story
By Terence P. Jeffrey
Perhaps the most important reason we need a President who tells the truth is so we can trust him when he takes our nation into armed conflict.
That is why Al Gore’s answer in last week’s presidential debate to the question of whether, in hindsight, he would still support the 1993 intervention in Somalia is central to understanding why he should never be President.
Gore’s answer was deceitful. And its very deceitfulness should remind Americans of one of the most disgraceful episodes of the Clinton-Gore Administration.
When debate moderator Jim Lehrer asked Gore if he would still support the intervention in Somalia, Gore said, "[N]o, I think that was ill-considered. I did support it at the time. It was in the previous administration, in the Bush-Quayle Administration, and I think in retrospect the lessons are ones that we, that we should take, take very, very seriously."
That implies that the "ill-considered" nature of the Somalia intervention was something hatched by President Bush, father of Gore’s opponent, Texas Gov. George W. Bush.
What a lie. The real lesson of Somalia was that you could not trust the Clinton-Gore Administration on national security matters.
Timid UN
There were two distinct Somalia interventions. The first, a humanitarian mission, was initiated by President Bush and conducted under U.S. command. The second, a belligerent nation-building-cum-manhunt expedition, was initiated by President Clinton and conducted under the command of the United Nations.
During Clinton’s UN-commanded Somalia mission, 18 U.S. soldiers were killed in a botched attempt to arrest a Somali warlord named Muhammed Aidid. Many of those soldiers died because the Clinton Administration did not deploy the armored vehicles to Somalia that the U.S. forces there needed to protect themselves–because the administration did not want Americans to know the extent of continued U.S. involvement there.
Indeed, Clinton had already declared victory in Somalia–and welcomed U.S. forces home in a ceremony on the White House lawn.
Clinton, in essence, was lying about involving the United States in what Gore now calls an "ill-considered" military adventure.
Here is how that "ill-considered" adventure unfolded:
In December 1992, outgoing President Bush agreed to send 30,000 U.S. troops to Somalia for humanitarian purposes. The troops went, pursuant to a UN resolution, to secure "the delivery of food and medical supplies essential for the survival of the civilian population." At Bush’s insistence, they remained at all times under direct U.S. command.
They arrived in the Somali capital of Mogadishu to no resistance and very quickly achieved their peaceful mission.
On May 4, 1993, Clinton having taken office in January, U.S. Marine Lt. Gen. Robert Johnston handed over control of the relief mission to the UN. "It’s all yours," he told the new UN commander, a Turkish general, as he departed with most of his U.S. troops in tow.
The day after Johnston’s troops left Somalia, Clinton welcomed them at the White House–where he staged a big photo op to take credit for Bush’s successful initiative. "Gen. Johnston has just reported to me, ‘Mission accomplished,’ " said Clinton.
Thus, the Bush mission to Somalia lasted five months–December 1992 to May 1993. For Gore honestly to claim this was an "ill-considered" mission of the "Bush-Quayle Administration," he would have to renege on his own support, also stated in last week’s debate, for using U.S. forces on humanitarian missions in Africa.
But after declaring victory for Bush’s humanitarian mission, Clinton involved the United States in an unauthorized war in Somalia.
In June, after a skirmish between Pakistani UN troops and forces loyal to Somali strongman Aidid, the UN issued a warrant for Aidid’s arrest. On June 12, backing up the UN’s arrest warrant, a U.S. helicopter attacked a site identified as an Aidid stronghold and killed "more than 50 Somalis."
On August 8, four U.S. soldiers were killed by a land mine. Four days later, Clinton sent 400 U.S. Army Rangers into the country. But he did not send in the armored vehicles those forces needed to safely cover themselves on the streets of Mogadishu.
On September 14, according to a subsequent investigative report in the Washington Post, Army Maj. Gen. Thomas M. Montgomery "sat down in his battle-scarred headquarters in Mogadishu and transmitted a call for help. Montgomery, the American commander in Somalia, asked for tanks and armored vehicles ‘at the earliest feasible date.’ ‘I believe that U.S. forces are at risk without it,’ " he said in his classified dispatch.
Still the Clinton-Gore Administration would not send the armor. Hadn’t Clinton declared victory in Somalia in May?
On Sept. 23, 1993, Clinton Defense Secretary Le Aspin specifically declined the general’s request for the tanks and armored cars. "I am increasingly concerned about the timid behavior of the [UN] coalition with which the security of ours forces rests," the general wrote Aspin in desperation. "We must ensure our own security."
According to the Post, "Gen. Colin Powell, in his last days as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sought Aspin’s approval [for the armored vehicles] on September 23, and later asked Aspin to reconsider his decision."
Ten days later, the Clinton Administration ordered 100 U.S. Army Rangers on a mission to arrest Aidid. They were trapped in the middle of Mogadishu in a nine-hour firefight because reinforcements did not have the tanks and armored cars they needed to quickly reach the scene of the fighting.
In the meantime, 18 Americans died.
"Ill-considered?" Darn right. Whose fault? Clinton’s. Who is deceiving America about it now? Vice President Al Gore.
He hasn’t the credibility to serve as Commander in Chief.
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