Love Reagan and all, but when it came to this part of the world he did not distinguish himself very well. When Hezbollah blew up the Marine barracks in Beirut, Reagan dropped and fired a few bombs and shells into the hills, and then quickly left the neighborhood. During the symbolic air strikes we lost a plane and had a pilot captured. We had to endure the spectacle of Jesse Jackson winning the release of the pilot in Damascus, I bet you can guess what the pilot looked like. It was a mess, a mess that was duly noted by future adversaries who figured we did not have stomach for war, think Saddam and Bin Laden.
Not only that, but Regan sent the marines in there with a fuzzy mission. Then they began to take sides during the conflict. That well may not have mattered, however, as we well know today. The terrorists need no real justification for committing mass murder.