Somalia essays

Somalia essays It was God-awful hot and the dust was everywhere. We were just coming back to the airfield in Moghedishu from an 18 hour patrol in southern Somalia. Jeff was concentrating on driving while Brad was manning the .50 caliber machinegun mounted on the top of the armored humvee. This left me plenty of time to take in the sights, sounds and smells, very rich ones, of the countryside and city. Dust from the afternoon winds found every cranny and nook you could imagine. It was brutal on our weapons, which had to be constantly wiped free. Even when I would take a drink of water from my canteen the taste of dirt was prevalent. When I started this paper, I found out that much has changed in this ancient land. I also found out that much has remained the same. Somalia is a land with a rich history and one full of sorrows. When I set out to start my research, I turned mostly to Government and Non-government web sites for information. Many of these sites were full of valuable information relating to Somalia, its past and how Somalia stands in the world today. I used one book, Delong, Kent, and Steven Tuckey. Mogadishu! Heroism and Tragedy. Westport: Praeger, 1994, for part of my research. Several other news sites were helpful in setting the scene for Somalias current place in the world, to include the War on Terrorism. Also the State department web site was a great help. I had some difficulties in finding books written about Somalia. There were many books written about the Battle of Mogadishu but few about the country itself. The State Department and CIA web sites were most helpful in this area. Both sites had a complete and comprehensive database of the history of Somalia. I also went to several African web sites for information and for their own perspective on events affecting Somalia, both past and present. I was able to use some of the databases from the ECPI library. For the most part this database was very good on the curr...