Does anyone remember Bashir Gemayel He led the “100 days war” against the Syrian forces. The Syrians came in to support the PLO forces which were wiping out Christian villages and dividing Beriut into East and West with a so called Green line. The Syrians engaged the Christian apartment buildings in Achrafieh and Ain el-Remaneh, Beriut, by bombarding those two sectors with heavy artillery. He was also later elected president of the Lebanese Republic on August 23, 1982. After the United States and Israel put the brakes on the PLO and Syria. Unfortunally,He was killed along with many of his companions in the explosion of the Kataeb headquarters in the Achrafieh sector on September 14, 1982 by Syrian intelligence agents. Not to long after that the Syrians took out a Marine base with another car bomb. Seems they like to set off car bombs to take out buildings in the 1980's. Does anyone remember at least those dead marines? They died to protect the Christians in Lebanon and we then pulled out because of Saudi, media and leftwing pressure. Lebanon is no longer a Christian nation.
That's because (according to Danr) the Syrians didn't translate the Koran correctly thereby taking mohammad's word out of context. The islamic terrorists was reported smiling to the sentries as he drove his truck bomb toward the Marine barracks. The American sentries, armed with only pistols, fired at the truck, but could not stop it as it ran through the road block. I remember that day as over 240 Americans were killed by the "religion of peace". We now arm our sentries with M-16's so at least they can take the SOB's out before they can do any damage. Shoot first, then ask questions later. That is the only method islamic terrorists understand. They want death so let's get it to them.
Just an interesting postscript to this story which kept it out of the news headlines when Bashir Gemayel was assassinated, it happened to be the same day that Princess Grace of Monaco was killed in an automobile accident just outside of Monte Carlo. This story took the headline that day. The Marine base in Beirut was taken out by a car bomb in October 1983, I believe this was also very close to the time that the USA and it's Caribbean allies invaded Grenada and expelled the Cuban advisers there. That story again took the headline, and the Beirut bombing took a back page story.
There are more twists to the Marine barracks story. A CIA field agent gathered hard evidence that Iran was behind the bombing of the barracks but the story was squashed by Madeline Albright and the State Department. Apparently, according to the CIA author, Iran was cutting a deal with a major US oil company and Clinton's Security Advisor at the time was on the baord of directors of that oil company. Iran was funding and directing Hezbollah, which ran the successful bombing operation. I have the references if anyone really cares. I'd have to look up the names, dates, and specifics. Secondly, if you recall, the U.S. Marines actually saved the PLO! Basically, the Israelis and the Lebanese got tired of the Palestinians and were prepared to eliminate the whole bunch. General Sharon was in-charge of the Israeli DF at the time. He later stated publicly that he regreted not taking out Arafat and the PLO at that time. The United States transported thousands of PLO fighters to Tunisia by ship to keep the Israelis and Lebanese from killing them. President Regean pulled the Marines out of Lebanon after the bombing, which futher empowered Iran, the Hezbollah, and Muslim terrorists in general. The CIA field agent quit his job during the late 1990s due to his frustration and inability to followup on serious terrorist leads. He occassionally does info-geek spots on Fox News.
I understand your point Quickdog, I made a broad statement without getting to deep but the deeper fact is that Israel went into Lebanon not to secure a ten mile zone but had the green light from the start from then Secretary of State Alexander Haig to go in and destory the PLO and the Syrians and restore Lebanon as a Christian nation with the Manorite Bashir Gemayel as its leader, since it was known he would win any election. Now our whole policy backfired when Casper Weinberger who was pro-Saudi put the brakes on the matter by getting Regan's ear with help from the news media, democrat leaders, and the pro-muslim state department pressure. This was one of Regans major mistakes for I believe that along with Jimmy Carter kicking the Shah out of Iran is why we have what we have today. Sidenote, Haig seeing that the Saudi's had the influence in the white house resigned after this affair and was replaced by the pro-saudi businessman Shultz who made millions of dollars dealing with the arab world. and yes I know from first hand that the Iranians back the Hezbollah,who are shia and many come from Iran itself. But the Syrians, who are rank and file Sunni but not the leadership, were behind the bombing. It was their MO and they shared control of Lebanon with the Hezbollah after disposing of the Christian military and later the beloved SLA, SOUTH LEBANON ARMY! 240 dead marines, sentries not allowed to have rifles loaded due to media concerns. Saudi money playing into our decisions. Got to shake both of those fleas for our dogs of war to bite and not bark.
