The U.S. troops sent to Somalia in the summer of 1993 were intended in great part to carry out a humanitarian effort, but also to facilitate nation building. Two years before the mission, a bloody rebellion that had started in 1988 brought an end to the twenty-one-year reign of President Mahammad Siad Barre. The civil war claimed more than fifty thousand civilian lives, left the capital Mogadishu in ruins, and created hundreds of thousands of refugees. While Siad Barre's rule had initially fostered economic growth and social benefits for many Somalis, he eventually became an intolerant and authoritarian leader. By the late 1980s, he was ordering indiscriminate bombings and shootings. Anger grew among citizens; rebel and opposition groups fought against Siad Barre's forces, and the leader was eventually defeated. However, the situation.....
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