WHO SHOT BLACK HAWK DOWN?
Black Hawk Down was produced to repackage an event perceived as an American tragedy into a story of American heroism. Unfortunately a film to honor the American dead during U.S. intervention in Somalia is instead a film that dangerously distorts the historical reality of U.S. presence in Somalia. The film is essentially a reenactment of a 15-hour battle between Somali militia and American troops during the 1993 intervention in Somalia. After a U.S. Delta Force raid on a meeting with senior officers loyal to Mohammed Aidid, a powerful clan leader widely believed by the U.S. to be responsible for the destabilization of the Mogadishu, Somali militia shot down two U.S. Black Hawk Helicopters. The ensuing battle claimed 18 American lives and over 1,000 Somali lives. By concentrating the bulk of the film on a 15-hour battle, the directors make little effort to portray the complexity of the U.S.- Somali intervention. Instead simplistically defining Somali and American realities as good versus
