Word: beirutization
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...only resign but be put on trial for "crimes against the Lebanese people." On the other hand, Syria, which is helping to arm Gemayel's foes, is believed amenable to letting the President stay on, and it invited a revised plan which the Saudis proposed and conveyed to Beirut. If Gemayel does cling to office, it may be as the figurehead leader of a drastically reshaped government heavily influenced by Syria and including Muslim forces sharply hostile...
...last week to more intramural conflict within the Reagan Administration, reflecting disagreements of officials groping for a new policy and unable to find any. "We don't know what we can do next," admitted one State Department official. Another senior diplomat grumbled that because of poor communications with Beirut, Washington is having trouble merely determining what is going on. Said he: "We're hamstrung...
Worse confusion surrounded the extent and purpose of U.S. naval gunfire into Lebanon. During the battle for West Beirut two weeks ago, the New Jersey lobbed 290 16-in. shells, each weighing about a ton, into the hills behind the capital. Word spread that Weinberger had been "surprised and depressed" by the scale of the shelling and ordered it reduced. The Secretary of Defense was supposedly worried that so ferocious a bombardment would provoke hatred for the U.S. without changing the course of the battle and could possibly invite retaliation against the Marines hunkered down at the airport. Weinberger...
...definite shift in emphasis. We are supporting [Gemayel's] Lebanese Armed Forces" in their battles with Muslim militia. As the White House speedily reminded Lehman, that contradicted repeated statements from Reagan that naval gunfire is supposed only to protect the Marines' encampment and other U.S. positions around Beirut, like the embassy compound, by silencing artillery and missile batteries that have fired on them. Less than three hours later, Lehman issued a six-line statement asserting that "the correct policy is ... as the President has stated...
...fleet to mask the shame of having lost." The Pentagon has not produced a "battle damage assessment" disclosing just what targets have been hit by the shells. Lehman insists that American forces track the trajectory of shells and missiles striking the Marines' encampment and other targets in the Beirut area, both visually and by a shore-based electronic apparatus, and that the ships fire only at the sources of those projectiles. But Lehman concedes he "cannot guarantee" that no civilians have been killed...