Operation Gothic Serpent - Results

Results

U.S. Secretary of Defense Les Aspin resigned his post late in 1993. He was specifically blamed for denying the U.S. Army permission to have its own armor units in place in Somalia, units which might have been able to break through to the trapped soldiers earlier in the battle. U.S. political leaders felt it would be bad for the mission's peacekeeping image if tanks were in country.

Osama bin Laden, who was living in Sudan at the time, cited this operation, in particular U.S. withdrawal, as an example of American weakness and vulnerability to an attack, which may have inspired him to plan the attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001.

Read more about this topic:  Operation Gothic Serpent

Famous quotes containing the word results:

    “The ideal reasoner,” he remarked, “would, when he had once been shown a single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which would follow from it.”
    Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)

    ... dependence upon material possessions inevitably results in the destruction of human character.
    Agnes E. Meyer (1887–1970)

    There is not a single rule, however plausible, and however firmly grounded in epistemology, that is not violated at some time or other. It becomes evident that such violations are not accidental events, they are not results of insufficient knowledge or of inattention which might have been avoided. On the contrary, we see that they are necessary for progress.
    Paul Feyerabend (1924–1994)