GodMode

Chris Slane (New Zealand)

One foot dancing, one foot nailed
To the floor
Chasing those circles in the ground
The same old shit is still the same old lie
Just when you think you've got it down
Watch it fly
--Trouble, Shawn Colvin

Murphy's Rules of Combat:
If you can kill them, they can kill you

It's all showbiz
--John Lennon
________________

Since day one, Ranger's training has been asymmetrical via-a-vis terrorism.

SFOC indoctrinated us about the terror tactics of Communists in Southeast Asia, yet the practices of it's opponents -- carpet-bombing, B 52 strikes, napalm, white phosphorus and CS/CN -- were never given the same consideration. Ditto the Phoenix assassination program, which was branded as a tool of democracy in the fight against a heartless enemy.

Fast-forward to October 23, 1983, when the BLT HQ of the 1/8 Marines was destroyed by a truck bomb, killing 241 men. Colonel Timothy Geraghty, the Marine commander has recently written a book on the event, "Peacekeepers at War," in which he maintains this is the first instance of large-scale terrorism against U.S. citizens.

It is a general given that the '83 Marine barrack bombing was an early example of terrorism against the U.S., but is this actually so? Dissenting voices are usually quelled as being unpatriotic louts, while the majority walk lockstep to the terrorist tune. As Glenn Greenwald wrote, "That we are at war -- not just in Iraq and Afghanistan, but generally against Islamic extremists -- is an absolute bipartisan orthodoxy that must be affirmed by all Serious people" (More Cause and Effect in our Ever Expanding War).

From a review in this month's Military Heritage, "At the time, it was the worst act of terrorism ever recorded against Americans." "The Marines began to sustain casualties, and their role as Peacekeepers was transformed into becoming active combatants in the conflict. ... Naval gunfire and airstrikes were authorized by the U.S. in direct support of the Lebanese Armed Forces."

Despite Col. Geraghty's position, there is an alternative one:

FACT: This was a Battalion Landing Team (BLT) utilizing naval assets to directly support the Lebanese Forces

FACT: This was not a United Nations Peacekeeping mission

FACT: The Marines were in a military mode

FACT: The Marines did not tactically deploy the BLT, but rather housed them in an administrative posture

FACT: There were no in-depth defense deployed by the BLT

While Geraghty is correct that this was an assault upon a BLT Headquarters, it was not an attack on civilians or upon Peacekeeping (PK) forces. The P.K.'s were not operating as P.K.'s, but actually took an armed position supporting an element of what could be called a civil war. Yes, Syria and Iran had a hand to play in this event, but those facts are irrelevant to the question of this being considered an act of terrorism.

If the U.S. could intervene, then what logical criticism can be made towards Syria and Iran? This is their area of concern, and their right to intervene in Lebanon is no less than that that of the U.S. The U.S. has no heavenly mandate to intervene in anybody's civil war. If they do, it is a law of physics that action will produce a reaction. This law holds throughout the physical and psychological world.

Again, from Greenwald:

"That's what happens when a country is at war -- it doesn't just get to blow up things and people in other countries, but its own things and people sometimes get blown up as well. That's how war works. ... The principal problem is that by pretending that we do nothing to fuel Islamic radicalism, we stay unaware -- blissfully ignorant -- of the staggering costs of our actions."

It's regrettable that good men such as the Marines were killed in this incident, but knee-jerk patriotism branding this event Terrorism serves no legitimate purpose.

The problem with Terrorism is that the U.S. taxpayer is being force-fed over a long period of time a fanciful interpretation of events. It's theater rather than reality. The Marine Barracks bombing occurred 26 years ago, yet we still accept a fictional account of the event.

When the U.S. forces throw Naval aviation and gunfire at a target, they must accept return fire. This is not Terrorism, but a fact of life.