Word: baidoa
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MOGADISHU WAS A PRELIMINARY; BAIDOA WAS the real thing. Some 70 trucks, jeeps and armored vehicles carried U.S. Marines and French Foreign Legionnaires into that town, in the heart of Somalia's famine zone, last Wednesday, as helicopter gunships buzzed overhead. The show of force was meant to tell armed looters: You can't match our firepower, so get lost. So far, Somalia's gangs have shied away from any shoot-outs with the foreign troops. But armed bandits did steal some food that had been delivered under Marine guard to villages near Baidoa, after the Marines left. Gunmen have...
...days after the Marines arrived in the coastal capital of Mogadishu, they were finally going out into the countryside where starving Somalis and relief workers alike are eager for their help. The 700-person contingent was headed for Baidoa, a southern Somalian town where famine has hit especially hard; it is there, and in the remote villages beyond, that most of the U.S.'s humanitarian mission will be carried out. It is there too that the conflict between the narrowly conceived objective of safeguarding food convoys and the larger needs of rebuilding a shattered and lawless nation will be played...
...antitank missile launchers are mounted on each vehicle. Every one of the 700 carries an automatic rifle. Marines pull on heavy desert-camouflage flak jackets and don steel helmets. Ammunition clips snap into place. The men of Team Tiger, the name given to the group of Marines going to Baidoa, are expecting trouble...
...Baidoa expedition exemplifies the doctrine of invincible force espoused by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Colin Powell. The weaponry en route to liberate Baidoa from the "technicals" -- pickup trucks mounted with machine guns -- may look excessive, but it is intended to ensure minimal resistance. "You have to use overwhelming force," says Lieut. Colonel Tom O'Leary, the commander of Team Tiger. "That's the only way you can go in smiling and waving...
...Purvis, who inherited Wilde's mongrel dogs, Whiskey and Pee Wee, along with his old job, has been in Mogadishu long enough to watch the city go from outright anarchy to "a place that almost feels safe." Bringing peace to Somalia's interior, however, may take some doing. In Baidoa, Purvis saw a young Somali no more than eight years old waltz up to a relief worker who was carrying a bag of cheese-flavored chips. "The kid had an AK-47 draped over his shoulder, its muzzle almost dragging in the dust," says Purvis. While Purvis watched, the pint...