Trained to make a difference

The 1993 American experience in Somalia serves as a metaphor for the subsequent and on-going US wars with Iraq and Al Queda. In the movie, a soldier explains why the US was in Somalia, and just as it was true then, it is true today. American soldiers are trained to fight what the Pentagon calls a 3-block war. On one city block, forces are trained to fight, on another to keep the peace, and on a third to rebuild, and they're trained to do all three at the same time. This scene is as true for Somalia in 1993 as it is in Iraq or Afghanistan today.