President Trump: There Are 241 Reasons to Go to War With Iran
President Trump: There Are 241 Reasons to Go to War With Iran
2019 is the 36th anniversary of the second deadliest terror attack on Americans at the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, which was bombed by Lebanese terrorists supported and directed by Iran on October 23, 1983.
The attack, which killed 241 American servicemen (220 Marines serving in the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines; 16 Navy personnel; and three Army soldiers), was the deadliest single-day death toll for the Marines since the World War II Battle of Iwo Jima and the deadliest for the U.S. military since the 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam.
The Marines were in Lebanon as part of an international peacekeeping force trying to stabilize the country, which had been torn by a civil war between Christians—with their ally Israel—and Muslims. A U.S. contingent entered Lebanon in July of 1982 to oversee the departure of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which Israel had invaded to displace. That American detachment left in September of 1982, but U.S. forces returned later that month when violence resumed.
The story of the Marines in Lebanon can only be described as a tragic comedy of errors. President Ronald Reagan foolishly believed sending in the Marines would stabilize the region. Instead of insisting that the Marines insert into Beirut with the required tanks, artillery, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft to ensure their own security, and to also return fire if attacked, Reagan’s Secretary of Defense, Caspar Weinberger, went to extreme measures to “defang” the Marines through rules of engagement that forced the Marines to operate from a defensive posture. This included reducing heavy weapons and ordering the Marines to keep their weapons unloaded to prevent accidental shootings. The Marine Corps wasn’t designed to keep the peace, the Marine Corps exists to wreak havoc on bad guys. The events in Lebanon drove home this point.
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Read more at Observer
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