Word: ghaly
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...exact mix of motives that prompted George Bush to launch the Somali intervention is still not altogether clear. The immediate causes were, of course, ghastly TV pictures of famine in that country and U.N. Secretary- General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's pleas for help to get food past the guns of armed gangs into the hands of the starving in a country that had no real government and practically no order of any sort. In addition, Bush no doubt wanted to go out in a blaze of glory as a world statesman, and subordinates were glad that the move served...
Also disquieting, the U.S. and Boutros-Ghali had trouble negotiating what it was that the American troops would be officially requested by the U.N. to do. The American story is that Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger told Boutros-Ghali "that we were going to do something very precise and limited and then get out," in the words of a senior aide to Eagleburger. Boutros- Ghali accepted but then "moved the goalposts," says the official, demanding that the Americans disarm Somali gangs, venture into the countryside and the north of the country, away from the Mogadishu area, and stay...
...while, though, things went well. The U.S. and other multinational troops opened roads, got the food moving again, even carried out some (though not enough) disarmament. Clinton, who had not been informed of the mission in advance but gave his blessing, knew about Christopher's negotiations with Boutros-Ghali to draft a plan for replacing American soldiers with a U.N. multinational force, but since American troops were coming out rather than going in, he left the detailed work to subordinates. By March, in a hurry to withdraw most of its troops, the U.S. agreed to a Security Council resolution specifying...
Clinton accepted the plan and told leaders of the NATO states about it in personal letters on July 30. Christopher followed up with letters of his own to foreign ministers of the NATO countries, Russia and U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. The U.S., said Christopher, intended to use military force not only to relieve Sarajevo but also to push the warring parties toward a negotiated settlement...
There are two ways out of this dilemma. The U.N. could develop its own army, a kind of foreign legion for desperadoes, mercenaries and idealists from around the world. They would come to New York and swear allegiance to Boutros- Ghali and the blue flag. A fine idea, but even as a screenplay, farfetched...