Mark Bowden, author of the book "Black Hawk Down," writes of how terrified the warlord's allies were after the battle: "Some of Aideed's strongest clan allies had fled the city fearing the inevitable American counterattack. The clan's arsenals of RPG's were severely depleted. Others were sending peace feelers, offering to dump Aideed to ward off more bloodshed." They didn't have to bother. Aideed could look forward, shortly after his attack, to becoming part of negotiations for peace.
Clinton's retreat broadcast a signal of weakness around the world. As it happens, al-Qaida operatives had provided assistance to warlord Aideed's forces. "It cleared from Muslim minds the myth of superpowers," Osama bin Laden said of Somalia in his interview with ABC News journalist John Miller in May 1998. "The youth were surprised at the low morale of the American soldiers and realized more than before that the American soldier was a paper tiger and after a few blows ran in defeat."
After "Black Hawk Down," bin Laden probably asked himself: If 18 dead could shake America, well then, what could be accomplished by killing thousands? There were two lessons for the United States from Somalia: (1) Don't send U.S. troops somewhere unless it's truly important; (2) don't let setbacks scare you into retreat. The Bush administration seems to have learned both, and perhaps the world will eventually get a very different object lesson in U.S. staying power.