Black Hawk Down is a movie that was acted based on real life events that took place in Somalia, Africa in the early 1990s. A movie that shows how desperate and cruel those who thrive to acquire political power show some high degree of inhuman actions and stark cruelty.
A civil war broke out in Somalia and the UN sent peacekeeping forces to suppress the unrest. Their presence brought peace but after they withdrew from the war ridden country, the chief militant leader Aidid turned upon the remaining UN forces and made war on them.
He went as far as seizing the relief foods that were made available to the people and left them in abject poverty and starvation. This action results in the death of lots of people in the country.
The U.S intervened and since an assault cannot be directly straight up at Aidid, they decided to capture his advisers. The mission which was made up of the Delta Force and the U.S Rangers was detailed to take just about thirty minutes went south as a young recruit, private Blackburn fell off a chopper. From there onward, complications came up and the battle dragged on.
Typical of a civil war ridden country, almost every block was filled with armed militias and the soldiers faced the battle of their lives.
What made me sad was the fact that, although the U.S military were risking their lives to free the starved and oppressed citizens, they were still the ones fighting the military.
Another point that caught my attention was the love that existed between the soldiers. They risked their lives to stay and watch over the corpse on their fallen comrades until help came and one part like this that almost made me cry, because we ladies often cry over sad movie scenes was where two Delta snipers Shughart and Gordon volunteered to put their lives on the line to protect pilot Michael Durant. They lost their lives but Durant was freed.
African countries have frequently been plagued by civil wars and most times, international nations play a redemption role but they get heavy casualties.
19 U.S soldiers lost their lives and also over 1000 Somalis died too but as the story played out, Aidid was later killed.