Dragan,

Have you seen 'The Kingdom?' A perfect example of U.S. involvement. That situation has occurred too many times to count.

I'm going to stir up some trouble here (nothing new), but it is personal to me, so here goes. Remember Black Hawk Down? Conoco, Phillips, Amoco, and Chevron were ready to tap Somalia's oil during the reign of Barre. Interestingly, Conoco's office in Mogadishu also housed the US embassy and military headquarters. When Barre was overthrown, U.S. interests were threatened. Granted, UN participation (that includes the U.S.) was for humanitarian reasons. However, given the other interests involved (and those interests were the interests of the UN, not just the U.S.), not to protect food shipments alone. Before the major situation that occurred, U.S. held many strikes against Aidid. There was an ambush that killed a lot of Pakistani soldiers and the U.S. retaliated on behalf of Pakistan with an air strike. That air strike took out a lot of seniors in the cells but also some moderate intellectuals as well. That air strike took out the moderates who were working on a compromise. After that, came Mogadishu. Operation Restore Hope did anything but restore hope.

Sheesh, we get rid of the Soviets from Afghanistan, we put Saddam in power in Iraq, a CIA-sponsored coup overthrew Mossadegh and reinstalled the Shah Of Iran, and I hate to even get started on Central and South America...