There you go again.
The US Marines were sent into Beirut Lebanon as part of a multinational peacekeeping force along with the Brits, Italians and French. In reality, the US Marines were thrown into the middle of a civil war and placed in harms way without proper rules of engagement permitting them to defend themselves. If the Marines had been given proper rules of engagement and if better security measures had been taken, the Marine barracks bombing could have been stopped. The allied peacekeeping mission was doomed from the get-go.
IMO, the mistake wasn't withdrawing in a timely manner, as Reagan did. The real mistake was going into Beirut Lebanon in the first place. That is where Reagan went wrong.
Having said that, Reagan wasn't about to expand the civil war in Lebanon into a larger regional conflict. That would have brought the Soviet Union in on the side of Iran and Syria. Reagan's foreign policy challenge in 1983, was fighting and winning the Cold War. An all out escalation of hostilities over the Marine barracks and the US Embassy bombings wouldn't have solved the multiple issues facing the Middle East region.
Following the Marine barracks bombing, Reagan took direct but limited military action. Reagan ordered fighter attacks from the aircraft carriers Independence and Kennedy, launched attacks against terrorist sights in Lebanon in the Bekaa Valley and Chouf Mountains in retaliation for the Beirut bombing. Reagan also ordered the USS New Jersey to shell terrorists outposts within Lebanon.
In February 1984, just before the US "peacekeepers" withdrew from Beirut Reagan ordered the USS New Jersey to bombard Druze and Syrian positions in the Bekka Valley east of Beirut. Some 300 shells were fired, killing the general commanding Syrian forces in Lebanon and several other senior officers. This was the heaviest shore bombardment since the Korean War.
So Reagan did stand up to the terrorists. What Reagan didn't do, was exacerbate the civil war that was going on in Beirut and all of Lebanon at that time. Again, there were geopolitical circumstances to consider that involved the Soviets. An all out war wasn't in the cards.
To this day, those responsible for the murder of 241 Marines in their barracks in Lebanon and the Americans who were murdered in the U.S. Embassy bombing have not been brought to justice. Do you think the Israelis would let something like that go by?
Yes, the rules of engagement were responsible for the murder of American solders. Did Reagan change them? No.
O’Connor’s nuanced reply, “I personally find abortion repugnant”, reveals that she would not vote to repeal Roe v. Wade. Reagan did some good things as President, but Lebanon and Sandra Day O’Connor were not among them.