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Beiruit Remembered 22-years ago Sunday 22-years ago Sunday, October 23, 1983, Hezbollah suicide bombers killed more than 300 American and French troops on peace-keeping duty in Beirut, Lebanon. It was our first experience with a suicide bomber. The International troops were in Beirut to stop the fighting between Muslim and Christian forces trying to gain control of the country. Most of the Americans killed were Marines and sailors from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The Corps remembers them with a memorial aboard the base. After the blast, President Reagan decided that our presence in Lebanon wasn't worth the loss of life - much as President Clinton decided ten years later in Mogadishu - and much as President Carter had decided that the capture of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was not worth fighting over. The result was the present Islamofascist view that the U.S. can be deterred by suicide bombers. |
