Operation Restore Hope Research Paper

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The United States entered the country of Somalia on December 8th, 1992. Troops were ordered to alleviate the famine outbreak that had affected the country’s civilians. The United Nations asked for its members help in aiding the country after somewhat failing to relieve the problems that were occurring. The UN did all they could in Somalia before the additional aid was needed by other members. The United States offered to provide aid under humanitarian reasons, the mission was named Operation Restore Hope. President George H.W. Bush agreed to deploy 25,000 troops to Somalia, he did so assuring the American people that the mission was for humanitarian reasons only and troops would only take necessary precautions to protect Somali people from …show more content…

The countries clan members were stealing civilian food sources, leaving many innocents hungry. “Instead, war-lords plundered relief supplies to feed their militias and exchange the aid for more weapons” (von Hippel 2000, 59). Hundreds and thousands of Somali people died during the war stricken famine. As a result, the United States took the initiative to get the people the help they so desperately needed to survive. Military aid was supplied by the United States, the deployed troops were sent to monitor the trade routes of where the resources were being stolen by the war-lords and clans. This is where the use of military intervention is questioned: Was the large number of troops sent to Somalia necessary for humanitarian relief? The violence that occurred after the U.S. troops were present for over a year was inevitable, the clan militias took advantage of U.S. and UN troops being present on their land. With that being said, humanitarian relief could have been delivered to Somalia in a way that focused on getting the people the aid they needed directly rather than sending thousands of troops to risk their lives. Direct delivery of the resources to Somalia with the help of some U.S. troops could have alleviated the famine needs and escaped the violence that arose among

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