Source: Bush Administration Considers Troop Deployment in Lebanon

[ECH1969]

The officer, who had broad experience in the Middle East while at the CIA, noted that NATO and European countries, including England, have made clear that they are either unwilling or extremely reluctant to participate in an international force.

Given other nations' lack of commitment, any “robust” force—between 10,000 and 30,000 troops, according to estimates being discussed in the media—would by definition require major U.S. participation.

According to the former official, Israel and the United States are currently discussing a large American role in exactly such a “multinational” deployment, and some top administration officials, along with senior civilians at the Pentagon, are receptive to the idea.

http://harpers.org/sb-source-bush-admin-lebanon-1153936109.html

[bkcc]

1. And so it begins.... n/t

[C_U_L8R]

2. that's one way to surround Syria

(and put us in another quagmire)

[BillZBubb]

3. The Chimperor is loony.

We don't need to put troops into Lebanon again.

[Nickster]

4. Wow, he can relive the Reagan years with that move. Can we invade

Grenada again too??!!

[KoKo]

5. But, I just saw on Jerusalem Post site that China/France/Germany/Spain

and a couple of other countries had all offered troops and that US would stay out of it. :shrug:

Must be lots of stuff going on in the "background/behind scenes" in DC right now.

Where are we going to get more troops? Is this the NeoCons posturing again? Sounds like it...

[atreides1]

6. Sure

The Lebanese will trust the Americans and the Israelis, and the Syrians will dance around the Maypole on a sunny spring day.

[aquart]

16. Well put.

[gratuitous]

7. Where are we going to get them?

Overstretched troops from Iraq? Stateside troops not stable enough to be overstretched in Iraq? Maybe somebody needs to open a window and get a draft going here . . .

[Botany]

8. Last time we were in Lebanon it went so well

From Wiki.

The bombing

On October 23, 1983, around 6:20 am, a yellow Mercedes-Benz delivery truck drove to Beirut International Airport, where the 1st Battalion 8th Marines, under the U.S. 2nd Marine Division of the United States Marines, had set up its local headquarters. The truck turned onto an access road leading to the Marines' compound and circled a parking lot. The driver then accelerated and crashed through a barbed wire fence around the parking lot, passed between two sentry posts, crashed through a gate and barreled into the lobby of the Marine headquarters. The Marine sentries at the gate had loaded pistols but were not able to stop the driver even though they shot at him. According to one Marine, the driver was smiling as he sped past him.
The suicide bomber detonated his explosives, which were equivalent to 12,000 pounds (about 5,400kg) of TNT. The force of the explosion collapsed the four-story cinder-block building into rubble, crushing many inside.
About 20 seconds later, an identical attack occurred against the barracks of the French Third Company of the Sixth French Parachute Infantry Regiment. Another suicide bomber drove his truck down a ramp into the building's underground parking garage and detonated his bomb, leveling the headquarters.

Death toll

Rescue efforts continued for days. While the rescuers were at times hindered by sniper fire, some survivors were pulled from the rubble and airlifted to the RAF hospital in Cyprus or to U.S. and German hospitals in West Germany <1>.
The death toll was 241 American servicemen: 220 Marines, 18 Navy personnel and 3 Army soldiers. Sixty Americans were injured. In the attack on the French barracks, 58 paratroopers were killed and 15 injured. In addition, the elderly Lebanese custodian of the Marines' building was killed in the first blast. <1> The wife and four children of a Lebanese janitor at the French building also were killed.<2>
This was the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima (2,500 in one day) of World War II. The attack remains the deadliest post-World War II attack on Americans overseas.

[sinkingfeeling]

9. Surprise, surprise.....Guess bombing the UN force 'turned off' some of

the NATO and European countries.

[laruemtt]

10. it's the end of the world as we know it,

it's the end of the world as we know it,
it's the end of the world as we know it,
and i don't feel fine.........

[Xenotime]

11. I predicted the * would occupy another country.

[OKNancy]

12. the title of the "article" is:

Could U.S. Troops End Up in Lebanon?

--
Please change.

[ECH1969]

14. Actually the title I posted is the origional title of the article

They just changed the title.

[OKNancy]

15. It's fine now

Since this is an "other article" and not breaking news, this was moved.

Also the author is editorializing. Example:

The scenario of an American deployment appears to come straight out of the neoconservative playbook: send U.S. forces into the Middle East, regardless of what our own military leaders suggest, in order to “stabilize” the region. The chances of success, as we have seen in Iraq, are remote. So what should be done? My source said the situation is so volatile at the moment that the only smart policy is to get an immediate ceasefire and worry about the terms of a lasting truce afterwards.

[SpiralHawk]

13. AWOL's big question: How can my republicon cronies make a buck

out of this?

[cobaindrain]

17. what is with him and the word "robust"

how about NO to more troops in the middle east.

[izzie]

18. Open the Va hospitals Bush we need those men

Power makes right and all that s--------------