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in the Aidid loyalists. This was on top of the fact that the mission was only given a 50 percent chance of successfully capturing Aidid, and an even lower 25 percent chance of taking him alive (Clinton 550).

Upon attempting to execute the mission, Aidid's supporters fought back and shot down two of the US Army's Black Hawk helicopters. By the time the fighting ended, casualties included nineteen dead and eighty-four wounded Americans, over 500 dead Somalis and a captured helicopter pilot.

Following the failed attempt to capture Aidid, Clinton refused to give the order to finish the mission. In no uncertain terms, he felt that if he were to send the US military back in, and it were successful in capturing Aidid, then the US, "not the UN would own Somalia, and there was no guarantee that we could put it together politically" (Clinton 552). An agreement between the administration and Congress was then struck to completely remove all US forces over a six month transitional period.

What is unfortunate about the failed raid on Aidid is that Clinton had made assumptions as to when and how the raid would be carried out and because of the lack of leadership in determining exactly what he was approving, as well as the lack of understanding of military protocol, Clinton approved "a military assault on hostile territory" rather than "an aggressive police action" (Clinton 553). Clinton would later say, "I was responsible for an operation that I had approved in general but not its particulars" (Clinton 552).

The failure of the mission repudiated Clinton's support of multilateralism. The administration had Ambassador Oakley meet directly with Aidid to negotiate the release of the captured helicopter pilot as well as a peace agreement which essentially allowed Aidid to stay in power, contrary to the primary goal of removing him. The Clinton policy in Somalia, while probably saving thousands of Somali lives, needlessly cost the lives American soldiers.

On the basis of the problem in general, the US should have stayed out of this civil conflict completely, as there where no US economic or national security interests at risk. The UN had put together the peace keeping missions and was controlling them. There is question as to whether the US military can or should operate under the direction of the UN. If the UN is going to request US military support, then the US military should take over the direction of any such missions. Additionally, the UN has been proven ineffective in

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