Posted on 11/01/2003 7:28:53 AM PST by redrock
Gone and Apparently Forgotten: The Marines of Beirut
By Patrick Hayes
Twenty years ago this week, Shi’ite Muslim terrorists murdered 241 Marines and Navy personnel, and 58 French Paratroopers in Beirut, Lebanon. Does anyone remember? Does anyone care?
On the night of Oct. 23, 1983, the Beirut city skyline in Lebanon was filled with the usual flash and echo of explosions, the almost continuous staccato of heavy and light machine-gun fire, and the nightly shouting and screaming between the Lebanese Muslim and Christian Druze factions.
As dawn approached on that Sunday morning, the noise of nightly combat dropped off somewhat and the Marines and support elements of the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit prepared for another day of intermittent artillery and mortar barrages, patrols through the streets and other peacekeeping duties. Some were in the shower, others were eating quickly between keeping combat boots presentable and cleaning their weapons, while others grabbed a last few minutes of sleep before the morning formation for those assigned to duty.
At 0622 on that day, a homicidal Shi’ite Muslim terrorist drove a Mercedes truck loaded with approximately 2,500 pounds of high explosives into the Marine Barracks at Beirut’s international airport and in a few seconds of terror, murdered 241 Marines and Navy Corpsmen. Eighty more men lay badly wounded, while not far away, another gang of Shi’ite Muslim murderers attacked the French compound with a suicide bomb, killing 58 French soldiers.
Not for the first time and not for the last time, the U.S. government sent American troops into harm’s way for political rather than military reasons and without a clearly defined mission. The Marines operated as a peacekeeping force to maintain order between combative factions, including Lebanese Muslims. On that October morning in question, the presence of the Marines was solely in Beirut to support the EUCOM forces trying to bring about a peaceful solution to the conflict that raged between the fighting Lebanese factions. Not for the first time and certainly not for the last, Americans paid the price for trying to quell Third World conflicts with dead Americans coming home in body bags and absolutely nothing to show for it.
But these men, combat-ready though they were, did not die in combat. A fanatical enemy, that has today become a worldwide threat, murdered them virtually in their sleep. Marines don’t sleep or relax unless their fellow Marines are on guard on the perimeter. In this instance, however, the rules of engagement prevented the Marines on guard from having their weapons actually loaded – this, even though they were receiving mortar, artillery and small arms fire fairly regularly.
There are many levels of bureaucracy with which the military must deal, not the least of which is its own. But when it becomes politically expedient to place combat troops in harm’s way with unloaded weapons, it may be time for real military leaders to take their cue and protect their own. This is especially true, given the cowardly nature of the Muslim method of attack and murder.
Besides having empty weapons, another blatant problem was placing a battalion of Marines in one single target area, leaving only a company on the perimeter to guard the facility. Given not only the environment in which they had landed and the reason for that landing, but also having a history of combat experience around the world in a variety of conflicts, with clear 20-20 hindsight, it seems evident that very few if any personnel should have been assigned to a building that was such an obvious target, particularly when the same Muslim terrorists had blown up the American embassy on April 18 of the same year, in virtually the same manner.
Twenty years have gone by since the Marine Barracks was bombed, yet several considerations are still evident.
One, very little or nothing has been done to retaliate against the Shi’ite Muslim terrorists for this atrocity. As we now know, in that part of the world, the United States was seen to turn tail and run. Also, rather than targeting these Muslim terrorists, we have flocked to their cause in trying to save them from Yugoslav Christians in Bosnia and now from a secular Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. In either case, little or gratitude has been shown and, in some cases, Shi’ite gunmen have exchanged fire with U.S. troops.
Two, unlike the Israelis, Americans also still seem to be afraid of upsetting the “Muslim (or Arab) street” and worry what they might do if we take them out in retaliatory strikes, whether the Muslim terrorists in Beirut, in Iraq, in the Philippines, in Malaysia, or wherever. People don’t seem to realize, they’ve already done it. Without any formal declaration of war, they have attacked and murdered not only our military personnel, but also our civilians. They have no compunction, no honor and certainly no ethics when it comes to killing anyone they identify as “infidels,” especially the innocent.
And three, we are still trying to fight with one hand politically tied behind our backs – fair play, no bullets, plenty of warning given to potential enemies, and all that is “proper” to play the game and satisfy the United Nations.
Because of our current level of fear of offending Muslims and what seems to be a national policy of political correctness, few officials have had the courage to actually say something definitive about our collective enemy. The one exception, Army Maj. Gen. William G. Boykin, is now himself under DoD investigation after news reports last week of him speaking to evangelical Christian groups on the subject of Muslim terror.
As I recall the October day 20 years ago, I continue to hope that the 241 Marines and Corpsmen in Beirut, the 18 American Rangers in Somalia, the Americans who have been killed in Bosnia, the Philippines, Afghanistan, and the men who are still dying Iraq, have not died and are not dying in vain.
This is an appropriate day also to reaffirm that when our elected officials send American servicemen and women into a combat environment, it is up to each and every one of us, especially combat veterans who know better, to ensure that politics, expediency and self-aggrandizement do not blind us to either the realities of the situation or the enemy we face.
The Marines Corps will keep and honor the memory of those men who died in Beirut 20 years ago. But I wonder how many Americans will actually remember. The Islamic enemy has been biting at our heels since the 1950s and 1960s, but too many don’t seem remember that far back.
Our war on terrorism began on 9/11, but the terrorists’ war on the United States began a long time ago.
Patrick Hayes is a Senior Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at gyrene@sftt.org
redrock
redrock
redrock
Which is why the President backed down from entering Afganistan and Iraq against the strong objections by the UN, the EU and most Arab nations?
(notice,......Marxist evolutionists (terrorist camps) 'deny' history,.......they see it as 'revisionism'.)
I've seen that myself, but from a different angle. I spent over thirty in the Coast Guard; worked with Marines twice and trained with them once. While I knew most of them were crazy (they thought the same of us for other reasons), I always enjoyed the time with them. It's hard to find a more loyal group of people.
Not that strangely considering the nature of the service, only one Coast Guardsman has been awarded the Medal of Honor. He was put in for the award by the Marine Corps for saving some Marines (and dying in the process).
Marine's still come to his gravesite to leave flowers.
We came awfully close in Liberia recently. Bush better not indulge in that sort of bs, irrespective of his electoral opportunities.
Semper Fi
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