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I have to agree that the presence of Main Battle Tanks in Mogadishu in 1994 would have been irrelevant, and their 'absence' was simply used as a political hammer against Clinton and Les Aspin. The Abrams is hardly suitable for use inside a city, and I'd say that the Battle of Mogadsihu emphasized the need for more heavily-armoured rapid-response helicopter gunships and light armoured vehicles. I fail to follow the arguments that say that heavy use of aerial firepower to support the besieged Rangers would have been 'immoral' or 'illegal' merely because it would have created large numbers of dead Somalis who were not in uniform or were of a sacrosanct gender or age. In a tribal/militia setting, lack of a uniform or of full age of majority is meaningless. Those US soldiers who shot down armned women and children or who fired through human shields were perfectly justified in saving their own lives and in punishing the enemy. The US and its allies seem unwilling to use the word 'punitive' any longer. A post-Mogadishu airstrike into areas known to be loyal to Aidid would, I think, have been quite justified as a punitive measure, as *punishment* for firing on and killing US soldiers. Warfare does have a certain pedagogical aspect: teaching the enemy *not to do something, ever again*. Whether this this means holding disputed territory, adopting hostile policies, or seeking control of scarce resources, the enemy is to be taught *not to do it* -- by force. And punitive actions are simply necessary in a world of 'peacekeeping' and 'peacemaking'. An Iraq or a Serbia-- and of course local warlords and bandit-politicos in places like Timor, Sierra Leone, Somalia -- is to be *punished* for its actions. Rulers do not act in a vacuum; all rulers rely on at least passive support from populations. Those Iraqis who cheered the occupation of Kuwait or those Serbs who cheered for 'Serbdom' in Bosnia or Kosovo have no right to complain when the bombs fall: they brought it on themselves. 'Proportionality' only allows an enemy to escape punishment,to believe that it can go on fighting. Lohr E. Miller Louisiana State University
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