In his Oct. 7 speech about Somalia, President Clinton said, “Those who attack our soldiers must know they will pay a very heavy price.” So far, the facts are that General Aidid-who not only killed U.S. soldiers but also dragged their dead bodies on the streets of Mogadishu-has, instead of paying a heavy price for it, gotten a hefty reward from the Clinton administration.
Aidid is no longer a wanted man; his demand for an independent commission on the killing of UN Pakistani peacekeepers on June 5 has been permitted; some of Aidid’s detained top lieutenants whose arrests were made by the U.S. Rangers-some of them now dead and desecrated by warlord Aidid-were already freed.
Aidid is seen and elevated as the only and most important actor in Somali politics. Even the general secretary of the UN was pressured by the Clinton administration not to visit Somalia last month, though he went ahead with his scheduled visit for fear of offending Aidid and his followers. And if such is not a characteristic of a president who would say something and do the opposite, I do not know what is.
