I think that's a bit naive, really.
But even if the intentions were honourable, and not propagandistic, there is an empirical question of whether or not the sum total of the US' efforts in Somalia could be called a crime.
The video footage of Somali families cowering behind walls under sustained fire from US helicopter gun-ships is not easy to sweep under the carpet. Five thousand people were killed in the obtusely named 'Operation Hope'.
As was generally understood, the US in particular made it a war aim to overthrow one Somali political leader, Mohammed Farrah Aideed. That was an unjustified substitution of the US state department for the rights of the Somali people. More to the point, it aggravated the conflict, and made the US prostitute its armed forces to Aideed's rivals for power.
Several of the participating countries, like Italy and Canada have tried members of their armed forces for atrocities committed there.
It was the inequality of power relations between the Somalis and the US and other troops that meant that the operation could only degenerate into one of oppression. Holding a people by force of arms can be called 'peacekeeping' if you like, but the truth was that the most dangerous of all the militias in Somalia, was the 'peacekeeping force'. -- James Heartfield