Ricktloml

Very well said
God Bless. Enjoy the "risen" day

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

Really Read the following: http://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/article/20121104/LIFESTYLE/311049866

In 1983 debacle, Reagan escaped the blame game; Posted Nov 4, 2012 at 12:01 AM

Next Saturday, Nov. 10, is a major milestone for the U.S. Marine Corps, America’s elite military force.

Throughout the world, Marines and former Marines will be celebrating the Corps’ 237th birthday. They’ll happily gather in pubs and banquet halls to listen to a message from the Commandant and raise their glasses in toasts to their spouses, their sweethearts and their Corps.

By contrast, these same Marines were recently commemorating another anniversary -- this time, a tragic one.

Tuesday, Oct. 23, a little less than two weeks ago, was the 29th anniversary of one of the greatest catastrophes not only in Marine Corps history but in American history.

At 6:39 a.m. on that autumn day in 1983, 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three American civilians were killed and another 60 were injured as a result of a horrific explosion detonated by a terrorist suicide truck bomb that destroyed the Marine barracks at the airport in Beirut, Lebanon.

It was the largest one-day death toll for Marines since the Battle for Iwo Jima in 1945.

With a force of six tons of TNT, it was described as the largest explosion since the end of World War II.

Those Marines had been ordered into Lebanon by President Ronald Reagan as a part of an international peacekeeping force following the June 1982 Israeli invasion of that country and the Palestine Liberation Organization’s withdrawal.

Making an already-dangerous situation even more hazardous, the Marines were under strict presidential orders not to load their weapons -- this, so that they would appear as peacekeepers and not as armed belligerents in the conflict and despite the fact that they were moving into a war zone.

Realistically, they had become “sitting ducks” from the moment they entered Beirut. And as a result of their absurd orders, when the explosives-laden truck sped toward their doomed barracks, the two unarmed guards had no way of stopping it.

According to Col. Timothy J. Geraghty, the commander of the Marines in Beirut: “It didn’t take a military expert to realize that our troops had been placed in an indefensible situation. Anyone following the situation in Lebanon in ordinary news reports could realize a tragedy was in the making.

“There was a growing feeling of frustration inside the Muslim and Druse community in Lebanon due to the United States’ direct backing of Israel in its 1982 invasion of Lebanon and other pro-Israel factions within Lebanon. These factions had been responsible for multiple attacks committed against the Muslim and Druse Lebanese population.”

While the blast led to the withdrawal of the international peacekeeping force from Lebanon, in retrospect, neither the invasion nor the Marine intervention should ever have occurred.

Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon insisted the invasion was justified in retaliation for PLO attacks on Israelis. Yet there had only been one Israeli death from such attacks in the previous 12 months.

From the outset, the American embassy in Beirut had sent numerous cables warning Washington that the invasion would provoke terrorism and undermine America’s standing in the Mideast. But there was no response.

On April 18, 1983, a delivery van exploded at the front door of the U.S. embassy in Beirut, killing 46 people, including 16 Americans, and wounding more than 100 others.

Against the vigorous opposition of Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, Reagan then ordered Marine commanders to call in air strikes and other attacks against the Muslims and initiated a two-week-long bombardment by American warships, including the battleship USS New Jersey.

In his autobiography, then Maj. Gen. Colin Powell observed: “Since (the Muslims) could not reach the battleship, they found a more vulnerable target -- the exposed Marines at the airport.”

The Reagan administration immediately attempted to deflect blame for the attack with a deluge of false statements and misrepresentations. In a televised speech four days after the bombing, the president insisted the attack was unstoppable, erroneously declaring that the truck crashed through a series of barriers, including a chain-link fence and barbed-wire entanglements, and argued that the U.S. mission was succeeding.

Despite the fact that Reagan had dispatched the Marines into an impossible situation and then had issued orders that led to their inability to defend themselves, he suffered relatively little criticism from the press or partisan opponents, and after months of vigorous campaigning was overwhelmingly re-elected the following year.
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P.S. On a personal note, shortly prior to the '83 tragedy, a 'Nam buddy of mine, Capt. Dale Dye (Retired)...due to his retiring from the Corps after twenty years of service...avoided the bombing of the Beirut USMC barracks. His personal thoughts/memories of the situation prior to his leaving can be read in the following link: http://daledye.com/?p=185

jimpack123 Loc: wisconsin

SO INSTEAD YOU ELECT A NIXON WANABE WHAT A DISGRACE HE MAKES NIXOM LOOK LIKE A SAINT

eagleye13 Loc: Fl

I read your sad commentary on the Beirut masacre.
Another example of the stupid CFR foreign policy in action.
Or was it just stupidity?
Those bastards are still running US foreign Policy.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

Thank you for taking the time to read and comment on it, Eagle. I heard and felt the exasperation in Dale's voice upon our first Khe Sanh reunion after losing so many of our USMC brethren in the Beirut bombing. If you read the link posted in the postscript below the article, you'll get a sense of his/our feeling of loss. If you also Google Dale Dye, I believe you will find him plenty interesting.

kankune Loc: Iowa

Did you ever read how they tortured Ambassador Stevens over there Taz?..It was heartwrenching.All while she was drunk and passed out.....Shes slime!!

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

The following is a long article, but well worth reading.

https://blastedfools.wordpress.com/2015/10/24/how-ambassador-stevens-really-died-and-why-hillary-is-still-responsible

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."– George Orwell

Another fake Chris Stevens meme...this is a prime example of one of the fake Facebook memes that has circulated. Oh yes, that is someone’s dead body all right, but it is not Chris Stevens, this was not Libya or Benghazi and this photo originally showed up on the internet long before 2012 – 2004 to be exact! And the photo of the victim was taken in the mid 1980’s – in Argentina…Chris Stevens was not raped or tortured; Hillary Clinton is still criminally negligent and Tea Party people are ruining their brand with fictitious internet memes

kankune Loc: Iowa

Seems like a perfect Hollywood movie......sorry ...not working for me.Slat. Thx for trying tho.

tazcregger12

Yes I did, Big Reason I couldn't vote for her

tazcregger12

Yes I did, Big Reason I couldn't vote for her

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

You're welcome, Kankune. I only hope that you took the time to read the entire article. The truth can be terribly disarming.

jimpack123 Loc: wisconsin

as TRUMP says fake news as any thing not to be to his liking is fake news Trump thinks he is a king that he is KING OF FOOLS

kankune Loc: Iowa

I read the whole thing Slat. If it's true that's the way he died, then I am not disarmed about it at all. I just find it hard to believe the whole thing was so blahzaa..just saying...

kankune Loc: Iowa

If a fox is foolish then I guess that's OUR President for sure.....

jimpack123 Loc: wisconsin

A FOOL YES A CROOK YES He belongs with the WWE