Russ Feingold:

I join several of my colleagues who have spoken today to say that we should leave Somalia now: we should not increase the American troop level or increase our involvement. Our continued presence risks not only more American lives but also the possibility that the worldwide broadcasting of the mistreatment of U.S. prisoners will so inflame our national pride that it will be increasingly difficult to leave.

We should get out now, Madam President, before we are in so deeply that we cannot get out at all.

From PBS coverage in 1995:

Oct 7, 1993:  Clinton’s response: withdraw troops
President Clinton decides to cut his losses. He sends substantial combat troops as short term reinforcements, but declares that American troops are to be fully withdrawn from Somalia by March 31. The hunt for Aidid is abandoned, and US representatives are sent to resume negotiations with the warlord. Two weeks later, in a letter to President Clinton, General Garrison accepts full responsibility for what happened in the battle.

The NY Times told a similar story - Clinton’s tough talk was accompanied by an end to the pursuit of the warlord and a re-opening of negotiations.  Yeah, that showed him!  Kill a few US troops, and we send a Presidential envoy; kill a few more, and we might be forced to send Madeleine Albright (that threat apparently brought him to the table, and we got our prisoner back on Oct 14.)

Why that was interpreted as weakness by Osama is anyone’s guess.

I`m afraid I have to agree that the US reaction to the Blackhawk Down incident emboldened Osama and his ilk. One can argue that the Clinton administration tried to stay, but the fact is they folded in the face of Congressional and public pressure. The writer above quotes a democrat calling for withdrawal, but it was a weird coalition of far left and far right that made it happen. What the GOPs don`t want to discuss (because it relects badly on their Infallible Pope Of Conservatism) is that Reagan`s withdrawal from Lebanon in the face of the Beirut bombings and the death our Marines was the first chink in the armor of the myth of the invincible US military. I was a soldier in the Berlin Brigade when that happened and clearly remember the mixture of shame and relief. Rumor had us (the 6th Infantry) replacing the Marines in Lebanon before the bombing occurred. We were glad not to go, but, dammit, we can`t RUN. From Osama`s viewpoint, not only did we run away, we ran from Shiites, inferior superstitious people barely Muslim at all. The GOPs love to blame Clinton for everything from the Internet bubble bursting to 9/11, but Osama`s gameplan goes back to Beirut.

OBL sure sounds emboldened from his own words, remarking on Clinton’s handling of Somalia: 

    BIN LADEN: We believe that the defeat of America is possible, with the help of God, and is even easier for us, God permitting, than the defeat of the Soviet Union was before.

    Q: How can you explain that?

    BIN LADEN: We experienced the Americans through our brothers who went into combat against them in Somalia, for example. We found they had no power worthy of mention. There was a huge aura over America—the United States—that terrified people even before they entered combat. Our brothers who were here in Afghanistan tested them, and together with some of the mujahedeen in Somalia, God granted them victory. America exited dragging its tails in failure, defeat, and ruin, caring for nothing.

    America left faster than anyone expected. It forgot all that tremendous media fanfare about the new world order, that it is the master of that order, and that it does whatever it wants. It forgot all of these propositions, gathered up its army, and withdrew in defeat, thanks be to God.

The above from CNN, a transcrpit of OBL from
OCTOBER 2001:  http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/02/05/binladen.transcript/index.html