“They were an all-star football team that had endured bruising, exhausting, dangerous practice sessions twelve hours a day, seven days a week—for years—without ever getting to play a game.”

Eversmann and the other are excited about the raid, which will be their first mission as a unit. Their time in Mogadishu has resulted in many false starts and they crave action. As Goodale explains to his mother when he enlists, every boy who reads war novels or memoirs wants to know if he is up to the job. Without combat, they can’t learn if their training works. 

“Whenever there was a disturbance in Mogadishu, people would throng to the spot. Men, women, children—even the aged and infirm. It was like some national imperative to bear witness.” 

The culture in Somalia is strange to the American soldiers. The civilian reaction to riots or other violent disturbances is to flock and watch. The American troops cannot understand why there are children, women, and elderly people among the militia at the scene of the fighting. Somalia’s violent history under the rule of warlords has made violence a more casual part of civilian life than in many other countries. 

“Who were these Americans who came to his neighborhood spraying bullets and spreading death?” 

Teenage student Ali Hassan Mohamed watches two of his friends fire at the Rangers, who then shoot and kill them both. Moments earlier, he was in his father’s shop working. Now, the streets are full of Americans whom he views as cruel, and they have killed his friends. As the book progresses, the foundation of Somali resentment toward American troops builds upon many such incidents, and the anger they produce in younger generations of Somali men.