The Lessons al Qaeda Learned From Somalia
The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point has made public al Qaeda correspondence that was captured, I think, in Afghanistan. It is fascinating, if chilling reading. Austin Bay has been reviewing and commenting on the correspondence, and today he has excerpts from, and comments on, a report by an al Qaeda member on an African mission on which Belgian and Indian soldiers were murdered.
I want to note, however, another series of letters translated and made available by the Military Academy, which you can find here. These relate to the state of affairs in Africa and Asia in the mid-90s. If you download the complete PDF version of the correspondence, and go to page 22, you will find these comments:
The Muslim victory in Somalia over the America has profound implications ideologically, politically, and psychologically that will require lengthy studies. You have the duty to record notes about these implications and keep them until it is time to study them in depth. Just the same, there is an important observation that we must not ignore, which is that the Americans were not defeated militarily in Somalia. Effective human and economic losses were not inflicted on them. All that happened was that the Somali battle revealed many of their psychological, political, and perhaps military weaknesses.The Somali experience confirmed the spurious nature of American power and that it has not recovered from the Vietnam complex. It fears getting bogged down in a real war that would reveal its psychological collapse at the level of personnel and leadership. Since Vietnam America has been seeking easy battles that are completely guaranteed.
Like it or not, that's what the terrorists think when we cut and run. And, of course, the jury is still out on whether their diagnosis of American power will turn out to be accurate.
