The toll for the Americans was 18 dead and several dozen wounded. The figure usually given for deaths among the Somalis is 500. The most disturbing feature of the book is the account of the casual killing of civilians.

Since the objective of capturing the Habr Gidr notables was achieved, the Rangers insist to this day that the mission was a success. By most accounts, Mohamed Farrah Aidid was indeed deeply shaken. After the dispatch of an aircraft carrier and some diplomatically phrased threats from Admiral Howe, the captured pilot was released. However, such support as remained in the US for the Somalia intervention collapsed. The raids by Task Force Ranger ceased. The US withdrew entirely a few months later. Aidid was back in the diplomatic loop until his assassination in 1996. (His son, oddly enough, is a veteran of the US Marine Corps Reserve.) Somalia in the year 2000 remains a legal fiction.

We are used to the idea that the Battle of Mogadishu (sometimes called “the Battle of the Black Sea”), i.e. the events on which Black Hawk Down was based, was a military blunder and/or defeat for the US. This review gives at least some weight to the nation that, while it may have been a diplomatic/strategic blunder (and PR disaster), and while some mistakes were made in execution, it should be considered a military success (albeit not a resounding victory). I always used to think I was missing something when watching the movie. I’m glad to see that perhaps I wasn’t.