Bill Clinton: “That, sir, is a brilliant question. I mean, it is the question of the day in Africa and in some other places. Let me…”

“That, sir, is a brilliant question. I mean, it is the question of the day in Africa and in some other places. Let me say, first of all, thank you for acknowledging the work of the Americans and the others there. While we are gone, there are still several thousand United Nations forces in Somalia from all around the world working to continue to save lives. What lessons did we learn? First of all, I think we learned that it is very difficult to have the forces of the United Nations and certainly the forces of the United States go in for any prolonged period of time and say that this is only a humanitarian crisis. In other words, the people of Somalia were starving and dying not because they couldn't grow food but because of the political and military conflicts within the country, not because no one would send them food but because it was hard to deliver before we went there. So I think we learned lesson number one is, don't go into one of these things and say, as the United States said when we started in Somalia, ``Maybe we'll be done in a month, because it's a humanitarian crisis,'' because there are almost always political problems and sometimes military conflicts which bring abut these crises. Lesson number two is that when the United States handed over its mission to the United Nations, it was quite appropriate for there to be someone who would take action, military action if necessary, to protect the lives of the United States and the United Nations troops there. But the United States in its role as a superpower cannot be caught in the position of being a policing officer in a conflict like that when there is not political process going on, because what happened was the police operation--which was a legitimate one, that is, to protect the lives of the soldiers who were there trying to save the lives of the Somalis-- became viewed as a way of choosing sides in the internal conflict of the country because there was no political dialog going on. So I think those are the two great lessons. We must not be naive. If we're going to go in and try to save lives, we must know that in the beginning, everyone will be glad to see the U.S. or the U.N. or anybody because they're starving and dying. But after a certain amount of time, it will be obvious that it wasn't just a natural disaster. It was a political problem, a military problem. And secondly, we must never give up the political dialog, then, so that everyone in the country know that we are there, all of us, to make peace and be peacemakers. Yes, we will fight to protect the lives of our people, but not to try to solve your problems for you. Those are the two lessons, I think. Rwanda”