Hallo!
IMHO... post 1996.
Since Samuel L. Jackson's character (Colonel Terry Childers) is a decorated Marine officer with combat experience in Vietnam, Beirut and Desert Storm...
the movie is post Desert Storm (1990-1991). With "Blackhawk Down" being 1993.
The modern scene in RoE, show Tommy Lee Jones' character (Col. Hays Hodges II) at a preretirememt party hosted by Childers in 1996. Then jumps to sometime later when Childers is assigned to the embassy in Yemen.