The cinematic spin actually takes away from some of the heroism and deep personal dilemmas that the Rangers and Delta Force operatives fighting in Mogadishu faced that day.

As the helicopter force swept in over it, gliding back in from the ocean and then banking right and sprinting northeast along the city’s western edge, Mogadishu spread beneath them in its awful reality, a catastrophe, the world capital of things-gone-completely-to-hell. For long stretches of Black Hawk Down, the narrative is stripped to its essentials, barely acknowledging, much less answering, questions such as Why are we here? The few proud old government and university buildings that still stood were inhabited now by refugees.

As Bowden points out, the fact that the situation in Somalia didn´t change after Aidid´s death says enough about the misjudgement of the U.

A Black Hawk pilot is shot down and besieged by an angry mob, then saved by Somalis who plan to ransom him to the local warlord. Written with such intensity, this military history volume by journalist Mark Bowden, brilliantly captures every minute moments from one of the longest modern day infantry engagements. This has obvious lessons for the Balkans, where ethnic hatred has been a participation sport for centuries,and many other areas in which ancient tensions bubble beneath the surface.It follows the battle as it builds,describing the elation at first entering the battle to the fear and hopelessness felt by the american soldiers who felt abandoned and the anger felt by the somalis. To acknowledge that this is still light-years away from the actuality of a real firefight is not to slight Bowden in the least. Their bravery and selflessness of our military is outstanding, and I can't tell you how proud I am of each and everyone of them. When the battle was over the causalities among the Somalis where over 2000 with a lot of civilians among them and of the initial raiding force 18 American soldiers were dead, with more than 70 badly injured and one of the Black Hawk pilots captured by Aidid’s men.

In managing to elicit genuine interest in those characters - they are far more than military serial numbers - Bowden avoids going gung ho, and the soldiers are never portrayed as some type of supermen. The feeling was, after six weeks of diddling around they were finally going in to kick some serious Somali ass.The book goes into a very detailed analysis of events which can be a little confusing to follow as it does get very "busy" and jumps around a lot between simultaneously occuring and historic events . A convoy of Humvees, rapidly filling with wounded, drove around in circles, unable to find the Black Hawk. Now a stunning film directed by Ridley Scott starring Ewan McGregor, Josh Hartnett, Sam Shepard and Ioan Gruffudd. Bristling with grenades and ammo, gripping the steel of their automatic weapons, their hearts pounding under their flak vests, they waited with a heady mix of hope and dread.

That dedication was forged starting on his first interview, and has developed into a book for generations. Mark Bowden is the author of Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War, Hue 1968, Guests of the Ayatollah, Killing Pablo and a dozen other books. The United Nations had intervened and peacekeeping troops had been deployed to ensure a secure environment to carry out humanitarian operations. There were quite a few Somali factions and very powerful among them was the war lord, Mohamed Farrah Aidid, the head of the Habr Gidr clan.

The trapped raiding party finally had to be rescued by a relief convoy made up of elements from Task Force 2–14 Infantry and 10th Mountain Division, accompanied by Malaysian and Pakistani U. Bowden describes not only the perspective of the American combatants, but of some of the Somali participants as well. In their own words, Mark Bowden has captured the heroism, honor, and horror of the battle of Mogadishu for both Americans and Somalis.