So far, I am really enjoying reading Black Hawk Down. I am a little bit puzzled as to the inner workings of war, but the book explains things quite well and I have begun to understand much more of it. I always thought that war was extremely stupid, and I still think that to a certain point, but I realize that people are not willing to work out problems with peace talks and treaties and that sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands, or in this case, the hands of an army. I am enjoying the format of the book because of its way of explaining things that the reader doesn’t know about immediately after talking about it. For instance, it will talk about a man who was going to war and then talk about his past, how he got interested in the army, etc. It makes me really wonder about how people can go through with such acts as killing people. It makes you think about how every one of them is an actual human being rather than a statistic. When we look at a statistic, we don’t realize that all of those people have stories, hopes, and fears. If you see a sign that says 200,000 people died in a war you think, Oh, 200,000, that’s quite a few people, but in reality you dismiss the thought without thinking about it. When we think that there were 200,000 people’s stories, 200,000 people’s hopes, and 200,000 people’s fears, and each one had a face, had a name, we realize the true terror of war. Another aspect of the book that I like is that it does include chapters where you are in the eyes of a Somali civilian, and you understand the mentality of the giant mob that was trying to kill all of the soldiers. You hear about young Ali Mohamed who felt compelled to fight for revenge after the Americans accidentally killed him while trying to destroy the building Aidid was in. You actually understand why all of those Somali people were out trying to kill the Americans; you are in the eyes of the one whose family member or closest friend was killed. I personally think this is the best way to get the message across that we like to pretend that we don’t kill civilians, but in war, it happens by accident. Then the friends and family of that person are angry and thirsty for revenge. And an all out war breaks out. The last thing I would like to say is that I really still don’t understand military strategy at all. I understand that you try to kill the others without being killed, but if you don’t know where the enemy is or if they are already a step ahead of you or not, how do you make a plan? I don’t understand most of the military strategy in the book, but I have seen the movie and I understand what happened, so I am hoping it will dawn on me.