"Fred the Red Shirt" wrote in message
om...
"George Z. Bush" wrote in message
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"Fred the Red Shirt" wrote in message
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I'm pretty sure we can agree that the nation building effort in
Somalia failed, in no small measure due to incompetant leadership
from the Clinton White house.

Have I got that right?

Yes, although perhaps some of Clinton's leadership failures could have been
attributed in part to his selection of Les Aspin as his first Secy. of
Defense.
Aspin, in spite of a prior extensive Congressional exposure to military
matters,
turned out to be an ineffectual civilian leader of the DOD who made mistake
after mistake. Those occurred at a time when Clinton needed strong civilian
leadership in the DOD to compensate for his prior lack of exposure to
military
affairs. He obviously didn't get much.


Thanks.

Advancing the clock a bit, could you suppliment my foggy memory further?
After the Mogadishu disaster, wasn't Aspin replaced?

Yes. He had been having some heart problems at about that time, one of which
resulted in him having a pacemaker implanted. After Somalia, he submitted his
resignation "for personal reasons", although most observors thought that
political reasons provided far more impetus than personal ones.

As I recall, subsequent military action by the Cinton administration, in the
Balkans, and against Al Queda assets in the Sudan and Afghanistan
were much better managed, though the Republicans complained fiercly,
especially about the counterstrikes against Bin Laden and AL Queda.

Imagine the uproar during the impeachment trial if the Republicans
had learned that Clinton had rescinded Carter's ban on assasination
and personally marked bin Laden for death!

Just thought I'd slip that in.

--

FF