52 pages • 1 hour read
Mark BowdenBlack Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1999A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
How Could This Happen?
The primary, recurring question throughout Black Hawk Down is: How could this happen? It can be asked of nearly every event in the story. Blackburn falls from the helicopter, which starts the spiral of bad luck and poor planning. He falls because his eagerness to fight makes him careless on his rope and the team has never “fast-roped” from such a height.
American misunderstanding of the Somali culture also plays a role in the mission’s downfall. While the Americans see themselves as heroes attempting to aid the Somalis, Aidid’s propaganda has corrupted the civilians, and they believe that the Americans are attempting to enslave and indoctrinate them. This belief, combined with their cultural need to “be a witness” and courageous regardless of physical danger, causes the Somalis to take to the streets during the firefight, leaving the Americans outnumbered and confused.
One major weakness of the plan is the American force’s confidence in their Black Hawks. When the first RPG hits the first Black Hawk, the takeaway is that even a well-planned mission is susceptible to improbable events. When multiple RPGs fell multiple Black Hawks, the suggestion is that the Americans have overestimated the helicopters; they are not impenetrable after all. And the mission, which hinged on those Black Hawks, quickly dissolves into chaos.
Additionally, the confidence of some of the commanders leads to what are, in hindsight, bad decisions. First, Garrison allows political pressure to convince him to make a daytime raid to catch Aidid’s men, despite the risk that it may pose. Next, Steele’s insistence that the men leave their night vision goggles is predicated on the assumption that the mission will be quick and end before nightfall.
Poor planning contributes to the chaos. After the rescue convoy arrives, the men do not have seats on the rescue vehicles and must run back out of the city. They even feel abandoned by the Army that sent them.
One answer to the question “How could this happen?” is that war is not an exact science. The book depicts the realities of fighting with grenades, missiles, and guns in an urban environment as erratic and surprising to even the most well-trained Delta men.
There are countless bad decisions and freak accidents that defy easy explanation of the Battle of Mogadishu. This unpredictability makes Black Hawk Down a harrowing experience, showing repeatedly that the situation can always worsen.
Loyalty
The Rangers and D-Boys are in increasingly dangerous situations as they try to protect each other and help their wounded. The clearest example of this is when Macejunas, moments after returning the hangar, prepares to go back into the city dressed as a journalist. Some of the men are still missing and he doesn’t care to be safely back at the hangar. Likewise, after the rescue convoy arrives, their escape slows as they try to extract Elvis’s body from the chopper wreckage, placing them all in danger. The pilots fly the resupply to the trapped men, knowing that their helicopter could fall victim to an RPG.
Inclusion in a group such as the Rangers, Delta Force, or the armed forces creates a bond between the troops, but the crucible of the battle gives them a shared experience that heightens their loyalty for each other and creates a “band of brothers.”
Meaning and Meaninglessness
During the battle, many of the troops question their role in the military and the military’s role in Somalia. As errors and casualties accumulate, the men begin asking themselves what they are doing there. Durant, newly aware of the Somalian perspective, struggles with his loyalty to America and his country’s misunderstanding of Somalis.
Patriotism, duty, and loyalty can give meaning to military actions. In the thick of a firefight, when one can die at any moment, thoughts of patriotism and duty may not be factors in the battle to simply survive.
When American troops withdraw from Somalia in March of 1994, it makes the troops question whether the American presence in Somalia was without meaning all along. The Americans never accomplished the primary goals of deploying troops, despite the sacrifices of the fighting men.
Dehumanization
The Rangers are to follow the rules of engagement which stipulate that they can only kill people who are pointing a gun at them. However, as the crowd advances and their lives become endangered, the Rangers must shoot civilians or die themselves. Some soldiers struggle with the morality of their actions; Nelson speaks of his combat experience as becoming something that is less than human, just a will that is trying to stay alive. Othic also struggles with justifying taking a life after his first kill.
Amid the carnage, the Americans dehumanize their targets to survive the mission. Spalding shoots a woman who is brandishing a pistol and holding a baby. Howe disparages Rangers for killing only armed civilians. By the end of the mission, the American troops would destroy the entire city for the sake of one soldier. To them, the civilians no longer represent humanity, only the enemy.
Likewise, the Somalis forgo their Muslim beliefs and desecrate the bodies of the American soldiers, parading torn limbs around the city. They recognize the bodies, not as human, but only as the enemy.
