Reply #2: That is why Putin wants the Syrians out of Lebanon [View All]

[NNN0LHI]

He figures it would be much more fun watching the USA trying to deal with Hezbollah than the Syrians. The Syrians have a return address if they cause any trouble. Hezbollah on the other hand does not.

Don

http://www.answers.com/topic/1983-beirut-barracks-bombing

1983 Beirut barracks bombing

The 1983 barracks bombing was a major terrorist incident during the Lebanese Civil War. It occurred on October 23, 1983, in Beirut, Lebanon, where an international peacekeeping force was set up after the Israeli invasion in 1982.

The bombing

On October 23, around 6:20 AM, a yellow Mercedes delivery truck drove to Beirut International Airport, where the United States Marines had their headquarters. It turned onto an access road leading to the compound and circled a parking lot. The driver gunned his engine, crashed through a barbed-wire fence in the compound parking lot, passed between two sentry posts, crashed through a gate, and barreled into the lobby of the Marine headquarters building. The Marine sentries had not had loaded weapons, and were not able to shoot the driver. According to one Marine, the driver was smiling as he sped past him.

The suicide bomber detonated his truck, which contained 12,000 pounds of TNT. The force of the explosion collapsed the four-story cinder-block building into rubble, crushing to death many inside. The FBI later concluded that the blast was the largest non-nuclear explosion they had ever seen. snip

Response

President Ronald Reagan called the attack a "despicable act" and pledged to stay in Lebanon. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger said there would be no change in the US's Lebanon policy. On October 24 French president François Mitterrand visited the French bomb site. It was not an official visit, and he only stayed for a few hours, but he did declare: "We will stay." US Vice President George Bush toured the marine bombing site on October 26 and said the US would not be cowered by terrorists.

In retaliation for the attacks, France launched an air strike in the Bekaa valley against Iranian Revolutionary Guard positions. President Reagan assembled his national security team to devise a plan of military action, and planned to target was the Sheik Abdullah barracks in Baalbek, Lebanon, which housed Iranian Revolutionary Guards believed to be training Hezbollah fighters. However, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger aborted the mission, reportedly because of his concerns that it would harm U.S. relations with other Arab nations. Except for a few shellings from the USS New Jersey off Lebanon, there was no real military response from the United States due to the barracks bombing; however, the US did become involved in several fights in Lebanon during their stay.

The Marines were later moved offshore where they could not be targeted, but in February 1984 the International Peacekeeping Force withdrew from Lebanon.

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