"We have strong circumstantial evidence that the attack on the Marines was directed by terrorists who used the same method to destroy our Embassy in Beirut. Those who directed this atrocity must be dealt justice, and they will be. The obvious purpose behind the sniping and, now, this attack was to weaken American will and force the withdrawal of U.S. and French forces from Lebanon. The clear intent of the terrorists was to eliminate our support of the Lebanese Government and to destroy the ability of the Lebanese people to determine their own destiny."
The terrorists achieved their purpose. They won, 241 Marines died and nobody paid the bill. The rest is, as they say, history.
So what! We all know why the bombing took p-lace. What we don't know is what terrorist organization committed the act. Reagan mentions "terrorists". Terrorists covers a lot of possibilities. The question that's never been answered. Who committed the Beirut bombing? No one knows.