Kollmhn, does your history book only go from 1990 and on?
Let me help you with your selective memory. Ronald Reagan, the all-powerful -- true "kick your ass" president had his administration taken hostage many more times than Bill Clinton ever did and he did even less to respond to it. Don't take offense Kollmhn, Reagan is not the first and he won't be the last. He did the best he could given the constraints that the public places on our military in these matters. Kollmhn, please add these passages of history to that 3 page book of yours - er, they go in the front of the book if that helps.
Timeline:
Oct. 23, 1983 Bombing of Marine barracks in Beirut
In his September 2001 FRONTLINE interview, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger said the U.S. still lacks "actual knowledge of who did the bombing" of the Marine barracks. But it suspected Hezbollah, believed to be supported in part by Iran and Syria. Hezbollah denied its involvement. The president assembled his national security team to devise a plan of military action. The planned target was the Sheik
Abdullah barracks in Baalbek, Lebanon, which housed Iranian Revolutionary Guards believed to be training Hezbollah fighters. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger aborted the mission, reportedly because of his concerns that it would harm U.S. relations with other Arab nations. Instead, President Reagan ordered the battleship USS New Jersey, stationed off the coast of Lebanon, to the hills near Beirut. The move was seen as largely ineffective.
Reagan Administration Reposnse:
Four months after the Marine barracks bombing, U.S. Marines were ordered to start pulling out of Lebanon.
Dec 12, 1983 Bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait
The American embassy in Kuwait was bombed in a series of attacks whose targets also included the French embassy, the control tower at the airport, the country's main oil refinery, and a residential area for employees of the American corporation Raytheon. Six people were killed, including a suicide truck bomber, and more than 80 others were injured. The suspects were thought to be members of Al Dawa, or "The Call," an Iranian-backed group and one of the principal Shiite groups operating against Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
Reagan Response:
The U.S. military took no action in retaliation.
March 16, 1984 CIA Station Chief William Buckley kidnapped
Buckley was the fourth person to be kidnapped by militant Islamic extremists in Lebanon. The first American hostage, American University of Beirut President David Dodge, had been kidnapped in July 1982. Eventually, 30 Westerners would be kidnapped during the 10-year-long Lebanese hostage-taking crisis (1982-1992).
Reagan Administration Response:
Iran / Contra. Since the funds from the arms sales to Iran were secretly, and illegally, funneled to the U.S.-backed Contras fighting to overthrow the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua, the infamous episode became known as the "Iran-Contra affair."
September 20, 1984 Bombing of U.S. Embassy annex northeast of Beirut
In Aukar, northeast of Beirut, a truck bomb exploded outside the U.S. Embassy annex killing 24 people, two of whom were U.S. military personnel. According to the U.S. State Department's 1999 report on terrorist organizations, elements of Hezbollah are "known or suspected to have been involved" in the bombing.
Reagan Administration Response:
The U.S. mounted no military response to the embassy annex bombing, but it did begin to explore covert operations in Lebanon. Investigative journalist Bob Woodward says that the CIA trained foreign intelligence agents to act as "hit teams" designed to destroy the terrorists' operations. Ambassador Robert Oakley says the U.S. merely attempted to set up a "protective unit," a Lebanese counterterrorist strike force.
Dec 3, 1984 Hijacking of Kuwait Airways Flight 221
Kuwait Airways Flight 221, on its way from Kuwait to Pakistan, was hijacked and diverted to Tehran. The hijackers demanded the release of the Kuwait 17. When the demand wasn't met, the hijackers killed two American officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development. On the sixth day of the drama, Iranian security forces stormed the plane and released the remaining hostages.
Reagan Administration Response - none.
Iran arrested the hijackers, saying they would be brought to trail. But the trial never took place, and the hijackers were allowed to leave the country. There was no U.S. military response. The State Department announced a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrests of those involved in the hijacking. Later press reports linked Hezbollah's Imad Mughniyah to the hijackings.
June 14, 1985 Hijacking of TWA Flight 847
TWA Flight 847 was hijacked en route from Athens to Rome and forced to land in Beirut, Lebanon, where the hijackers held the plane for 17 days. They demanded the release of the Kuwait 17 as well as the release of 700 fellow Shiite Muslim prisoners held in Israeli prisons and in prisons in southern Lebanon run by the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army. When these demands weren't met, hostage Robert Dean Stethem, a U.S. Navy diver, was shot and his body dumped on the airport tarmac. U.S. sources implicated Hezbollah.
Reagan Administration Response - Nothing.
Oct 1985 - Jan 1986 Hijacking of cruise ship Achille Lauro; Bombing of Rome, Vienna airports
Then there was the bombing of the Le Belle Disco, but I've made my point. Hard ass Ronnie can't even tame these guys, so why pick on Clinton? I'm just presenting the other side of the story. It usually blows peoples minds that all of this happened on the Reagan Administrations watch, but his administration was made up of ex-vietnam guys like Colin Powell, who when confronted with a terrorist threat would always ask "What's the objective"? That question comes straight from America's involvement in Vietnam. To not acknowledge Vietnam's hand-tying effect on the Reagan administration would be pure folly. Just a history lesson to set the record straight.
Malcolm. |
