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In November 1992, William Jefferson Clinton was elected President of the United States despite claiming less than 44% of the popular vote. However Clinton's performance in the larger states that carried more electoral votes, was instrumental in carrying him to the White House, in spite of approximately 57% of the ballots cast opposing his candidacy. Clinton's victories in California, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois provided enough strength in electoral votes to carry him past Bush who claimed Texas and Florida. With Clinton's election, he "inherited a stronger international position than any modern U.S. president" (Hyland 1). However, by the time Clinton left office following his second term, he had greatly reduced the international safety and security of America, specifically in the administration's "weak, incompetent, hesitant, and inconsistent attempts . . . to kill or capture Osama bin Laden" (Morris 95). The roadmap to foreign policy failure by the Clinton administration, which included bouts of indecision partnered with inaction or inconsistency began in Mogadishu, Somalia, barely five months into his first term in office.

Somalia, a country with no central government, was run by a "form of tribalism [in which] the clans, [the principal social organizations of the country], were like giant, warring gangs, [rendering] the forces of any alternative authority marginal" (Halberstam 248). In previous years, the American government had provided economic aid to the country. This support continued until 1988, when all aid was suspended due to human rights violations by the dictatorial regime of Siad Barre. In 1990, American citizens were evacuated from the country and the embassy was closed, leaving no directly represented American interests (Hyland 52). After overthrowing Barre in 2001, the sub-clans were represented by three political factions, one in the north and two in the south. The two battling factions in the south were led by Somali businessman Ali Mahdi and his opposition, Mohammed Farah Aidid, a Colonel in the Somali army. The two factions engaged in civil infighting that began in September 1991 and lasted until a United Nations cease fire was negotiated in March 1992, by which time casualties fell somewhere between thirty and fifty thousand.

In August 1992, following public outcry led by the New York Times, the Bush administration began working with the UN to airdrop supplies into the country, and following his loss to Clinton in the November

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