Page 86 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo II

726 XXXIX Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

factions. So the mission grew and it was not sufficiently backed by a strong force or
fully functioning, well-led staff. The Somalis sensed this weakness immediately and Ai-
deed’s forces first tested the new organization, then bloodied it, and finally neutralized it.
Each of the coalition partners quickly decided that the game was not worth the candle.
The military and diplomatic effort to bring together all the clans and political enti-
ties into a peace settlement was a failure. Multinational coalition military power had
initially established the conditions for a possible peace in the midst of a famine and
civil war, but, unlike later in Bosnia, the Somali factions were not yet exhausted from
the fighting and were not yet willing to stop killing each other and anyone caught in the
middle. There was no peace to keep or build upon.