Word: beirutization
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President Reagan accepted blame for the deaths of the 241 Marines blasted from their billet in Beirut last October [Jan. 9]. If Reagan is personally responsible, was President Franklin Roosevelt liable for the thousands of naval personnel lost in the sinking of the fleet at Pearl Harbor? He definitely did not think so, even though he stationed them in Hawaii. F.D.R. summarily relieved the local commanders. Without question, they were guilty of not adhering to the standing operation procedure prescribed in military doctrine. This Beirut fiasco was a "failure of command" beginning at company or higher unit level...
Since their arrival in Lebanon, the Marine troops have drawn and, more recently, returned bullets and heavy shelling. Nothing seems more antithetical to the purpose of a peacekeeping mission than the sight of the guns of the New Jersey pounding the hills outside Beirut to protect U.S. ground forces there--a scene re-enacted only days ago. This newest layer of violence in a country already "blessed" with more than its due, is a straightforward and compelling case for withdrawal...
...true mission is to preserve U.S. strategic interests in the region--namely a democratic and pro-Western Gemayel government. But if this was the true Administrative intent behind the mission, it was not the basis on which Congress and, tacitly, the American public, sanctioned the stationing of Marines in Beirut...
...foreign policy in Lebanon that pursues U.S. strategic interests without regard for the rights and wishes of the Lebanese people themselves would be morally reprehensible. Further, it is clear that current U.S. policy is failing even with regard to purely strategic considerations; the Marines hunkered around the Beirut Airport clearly are not capable of effectively com-batting Syrian influence in the region...
...Marines were stationed in Beirut not as a combat force, but in the reasonable hope that they could provide a neutral, stabilizing force in the vacuum created by the Israeli withdrawal. Sadly, they have failed in this task--largely because they are viewed by most Lebanese (and, most likely, the Gemayel government itself) as anything but neutral. In an already bulletridden nation, the Marines have become just another target...