Donald Trump made disparaging remarks about Somalia, claiming Somalis only run around shooting each other. U.S. troops have attacked Somalis since the early 1990s, beginning after George H. W. Bush launched a humanitarian intervention. By June 1993, U.S. and U.N. troops attacked targets in Mogadishu linked to warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. In July 1993, U.S. helicopter gunships attacked a house where Somali clan leaders met, with major civilian casualties reported by the International Committee of the Red Cross. In the early 2000s, George W. Bush expanded attacks under the Global War on Terror, including drone strikes. Barack Obama increased operations, and Joe Biden continued drone warfare after taking office.
""It's got no anything," President Donald Trump said of Somalia in a recent xenophobic rant. "All they do is run around shooting each other.""
"By June 1993, U.S. and U.N. troops had begun attacking various targets in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, linked to warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid, who had helped overthrow dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. The next month, in a major escalation, U.S. helicopter gunships attacked a house in that city where a group of Somali clan leaders was meeting. The International Committee of the Red Cross said 54 people were killed and 161 wounded."
"Aidid claimed that 73 Somalis had died, including women and children, and more than 200 had been wounded. U.S. forces suffered no casualties whatsoever. And it wasn't long before - in the early 2000s, under Bush's son, George W., as part of what became known as the Global War on Terror - American troops began slaughtering Somalis again."
"His successor, President Barack Obama, upped the Forever War ante, becoming an assassin-in-chief in Somalia and beyond. Obama's vice president, Joe Biden, continued the drone war there, too, when he entered the White House. However, for all those years of slaughter in Somalia, no American president has ever attacked Somalis with the persis"
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