ContextOver the past fifty years, Somalia has been plagued by internal strife, poor economic conditions, and the absence of centralized authority for its population. In 1969 a man named Mohammed Siad Barre became the leader of Somalia through a military coup. During his long regime as leader of the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party, he too was overthrown in January 1991 by opposing clans including the United Somali Congress, the Somali Democratic Salvation Front, the Somali National Movement, the Somali Patriotic Movement and the Democratic Movement Somali. Not soon after the overthrow of Mohammed Siad Barre, these clans split into two main groups. Ali Mahdi was the leader of both Mohammed Farah Aidid. This led to widespread violence and the destruction of Somali agriculture that functioned under Mohammed Siad Barre. The main source of power in Somalia was food distribution. It is said that in the early 1990s around 80% of all humanitarian aid was stolen. This resulted in over three hundred thousand Somalis dying of starvation, due to the fact that they were stealing internationally supplied food to secure the support of clan leaders in fighting each other. In light of the severe food crisis in Somalia, the United Nations created a Unified Task Force to facilitate the distribution of humanitarian aid during widespread fighting among Somali clans. The United States and other NATO nations sent troops, but the forced operation failed because they were unable to secure supply shipments. Most of the supplies were looted by the militants suddenly upon arrival. This led the United Nations to pass Resolution 794, which established a secure environment to carry out humanitarian operations. In December… halfway through the document… it would forever change military thinking and decision-making on humanitarian and peacekeeping operations. Summary Even though Task Force Ranger had arrested some of General Aidid's top commanders, General Aidid was still at large. A planned 90-minute operation turned into a full-blown 20-hour assault on American forces that left 18 dead and 73 soldiers wounded. I believe this amounts to a military defeat for the United States due to our intelligence failures and the fact that we withdrew our forces from this region very quickly. This demonstrated that the United States was not fully committed to change in the region and gave the impression that the US military was weak. And just as the American public viewed the military after the failure in Vietnam and Operation Eagle Claw, the Battle of Mogadishu would reek of death and defeat..