Why bring up Jimmy Carter when Reagan (Think God!) decided to put Marines in Lebanon?

[Bozita]

Why have the MSM failed to mention the deaths of 241 U.S. service members during the reign of Reagan? Why have no Dems come to the defense of President Carter?

It's time to dig up that time capsule from 1983.

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Suicide bomber killed 241 American troops 25 years ago in barracks
October 23, 2008

In the green expanse of Arlington National Cemetery's Section 59, a Lebanese cedar tree grows near the final resting place of some of the first Americans to shed blood in the fight against Middle East terrorism.

Former Navy journalist Joe Ciokon of Poway was sleeping next door to the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, that were hit by a suicide bomber 25 years ago today. After scrambling to locate survivors, he was ordered to take up his camera and record the scene.

Twenty-five years ago today, a suicide bomber steered a truck loaded with the equivalent of six tons of TNT down the airport road in Beirut, Lebanon. He plowed into the four-story barracks where more than 300 U.S. troops from a U.N. peacekeeping mission slept and detonated what the FBI called the largest non-nuclear bomb in history.

The explosion and fireball pulverized the concrete fortress, killing 241 U.S. service members, most of them Marines. A second blast minutes later at the compound of the French peacekeeping force killed 58 more Western troops. Three months later, President Ronald Reagan pulled the Americans out of Beirut.

A quarter-century and two wars with Iraq have dulled the public's memory of the Beirut attack. But the United States and its allies still feel the effects, said retired Marine Col. Tim Geraghty, who commanded U.S. forces in Lebanon at the time.

A splinter group of the Iranian-and Syrian-supported Hezbollah organization carried out the attack, which allegedly was planned by a man who later inspired Osama bin Laden. Then a tiny guerrilla outfit, Hezbollah has grown into a political and military force in Lebanon.

more...
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/terror.htm

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Was Reagan a cheese-eating surrender monkey for pulling Americans out of Beirut? Maybe someone should ask the draft-dodging Willard Romney. Neither he or any of his 5 sons have ever worn the uniform of ANY service.

[RZM]

1. Reagan was probably right to pull out of Lebanon

It's certainly what DUers would have wanted back then (and those who are old enough probably did).

I've interviewed a family whose son died in the bombing. It was a sad situation. They were Republicans and supported the war on terror, but understood the horrors of war and that the US can't just put troops wherever it wants without consequences.

[Icicle]

2. I remember that bombing...

I was in high school at the time, and a girl in my class had a brother who was one of the Marines there. Word went around school that morning like wildfire, and we were less than 60 seconds into our discussion of "current events" when she asked to be excused, tears streaming from her eyes.
Turns out her brother was unhurt, but her reaction is still fresh in my mind. "We're not at war" she said several times.

[Skittles]

3. I rememer seeing the headline on the newspaper

walking out of a 7-11 (I've never been much of a TV watcher)

I did a double-take - so terribly upsetting

[pansypoo53219]

4. apparently it's a-ok,

if many soldiers die for a publikkklan president. i remember the endless discussion on the bosnia action. NADA for iWaq. nothing. and not much coverage on the missing weapons of mass destruction. strong on defense is bullshit. not since eisenhower.

[Doc_Technical]

5. The US invaded Grenada two days later

and that canceled out the fiasco in Lebanon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Grenada_(1983)

Republicans play by different rules:

"One atta-boy wipes out all aww-shits."