Reply #2: No, it's not even a withdrawal when Republicans do it. [View All]

[Lasher]

Saint Ronnie called his retreat from Lebanon a "redeployment".

On April 28, 1983, a suicide bomber drove a van loaded with 2,000 pounds of explosives into the U.S. embassy in Beirut. Sixty-three people died, including seventeen Americans.

Four months later (September 6, 1983), two U.S. Marines were killed by rocket and mortar fire. At an October 19 press conference, Reagan was asked about the safety of the Marines in Beirut to which he replied, "We're looking at everything that can be done to try and make their position safer. We're not sitting idly by."

A few days later (October 23), another suicide bomber drove a truck loaded with explosives into the headquarters building of the First Battalion, 8th Marines, located at the Beirut airport. The resulting explosion killed 241 American servicemen.

Three months later, the Reagan administration removed American troops from Beirut and put them aboard offshore ships. Reagan described the retreat as taking "decisive new steps." Explained spokesman Larry Speakes, "We don't consider this a withdrawal but more of a redeployment."

http://www.geocities.com/thereaganyears/foreignpolicy.htm