Secretary of Defense Les Aspin was “blamed widely for the infamous ‘Black Hawk Down’ misadventure in Somalia in October [3-4] 1993, when a failed mission to kidnap a Somali warlord [Mohamed Farrah Aideed] resulted in the deaths of seventeen American Special Forces soldiers. Because Secretary Aspin had refused the military’s request to deploy tanks to the region, the American soldiers who were pinned down by Somali militia were rescued ultimately by armored vehicles from Italy and Pakistan.”
– John Farmer, The Ground Truth, Page 80-81