Somalia Intervention and the Public

¶ … Somalia intervention and the public opinion of Americans towards this intervention. Somalia is not the first country where the United States has intervened in order to break up a civil war and provide assistance to the citizens. Operation Restore Hope was a peace mission by the United States to Somalia in which American troops were deployed. The civil war was so bad that relief efforts were tampered with caused mass starvation. Many Americans probably wanted to know whether or not our troops should have been deployed to Somalia.

The initial opinion of the American public was to support the efforts in Somalia. However, after eighteen American soldiers were killed during the firefight, the public opinion changed. At this time, President Clinton was in office but people blamed Bush for what was happening to our troops in Somalia. Before the firefight, many U.S. citizens were unaware of what was happening is Somalia as it failed to make the top news stories for a while.

For a short while, the American public was aware of the efforts in Somalia and many supported it because they saw us as being humanitarian. but, the thought of disarming the Somalia troops did not sit well with most of the public showing that there was very little support for the United States' involvement in a long-term solution for the country. This is due to the fact that efforts for a long-term solution usually involve violence and includes the loss of lives. When the lives of our troops are lost in wars that have nothing to do with us, there is usually strong disapproval from the American people.

Because of the massive amount of starvation in Somalia it was a humanitarian effort to send food and relief to the dying nation. Many Americans do not take issue with this. However, sending food and relief to Somalia wasn't just a matter of dropping food for the people to consume. Because of the civil war going on there, efforts to keep the food from reaching the people were occurring. America not only felt that Somalia needed relief. They also felt like they could assist in the war efforts. This is what the American public had issues with because in our effort to create a more peaceful Somalia, we were losing some of our troops in the process.

Providing relief to eliminate starvation should not mean the loss of life for anyone. On the one hand, we want to help those who are severely in danger. On the other hand, does this mean that those we send to aid and assist can expect to lose their lives by doing what is considered humanitarian? The right thing for most of us is to do what is humanitarian by providing food for those that are starving. When met with opposition, it is natural for this country to feel the need to help those in need. It must be understood that in any war, lives will be lost. While we do not want to face this fact, the bottom line is that it is true and the troops generally know this before signing up to serve in the military.