Somalia
Detailed Involvements
Events with rich location context
Somalia is named as another cautionary example of messy, inconclusive intervention—used to argue that more force does not necessarily produce strategic success and can create blowback.
Grim and cautionary in speech—short-hand for messy precedent.
Historical counterexample in the policy debate about proportionality.
Symbolizes the limits and unpredictability of military power.
Somalia is named as another fraught intervention that cools talk of sweeping retaliation; its mention signals the operational and reputational limits of force.
Cautionary, memory‑laden.
Counterbalance in the debate over escalation.
Warns of chaotic entanglements that erode the intended deterrence of force.
Somalia is cited as an example of messy intervention, a cautionary tale that Leo and Bartlet both use to illustrate the limits of force and the perils of rash escalation.
Summoned as a gritty, cautionary memory.
Historical counterweight shaping the argument for restraint.
Signifies the cost and complexity of intervention.
Events at This Location
Everything that happens here
Leo shuts the office doors to force a private confrontation where grief, rage and statecraft collide. Bartlet vents a classical, almost biblical demand for overwhelming retribution after the airliner is …
In Leo's office Bartlet erupts, demanding unmistakeable retribution for the downed airliner — invoking Roman citizenship as a moral precedent and insisting overwhelming force will deter further attacks. Leo closes …
In Leo's office, Bartlet's grief-tinged fury about the downed airliner erupts into a moral argument about retribution versus responsible power. Leo grounds him with pragmatic restraint, trading hard-edged historical and …