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thedrifter
07-20-06, 01:40 PM
Marines' History In Lebanon Dates To '58

Before U.S. Marines went ashore Thursday in Beirut to help evacuate American citizens, the Marines had been ordered into Lebanon three times, with their first deployment creating a bit of a comedy and the third generating a tragedy that left 241 Americans dead.
US Marines and US Navy personnel help bring evacuees on board an landing class from a beach in Beirut, Lebanon. Around 1200 people are to be taken by LCU to the USS Nashville, and transported to Cyprus, Thursday July 20, 2006. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

The Marines were first sent to the Mediterranean country in July 1958 when it was feared a simmering revolt could topple Lebanese President Camille Chamoun at a time of nervousness about the Middle East because a revolution had just put an end to the Iraqi monarchy.

But the Lebanese situation never boiled over. When the Marines came ashore on a beach near Beirut airport, they were greeted by sunbathers offering cold sodas _ and the U.S. operation has since been jokingly called the Coca-Cola War.

The Marines were again ordered into Beirut in August 1982 as part of a multinational force to ensure order as PLO chairman Yasser Arafat's guerrillas were evacuated from Lebanon after Israel invaded the country. The Marines left after about two weeks once the evacuation was completed.

Little more than a week later, they were ordered back after Christian militiamen allied with Israel massacred hundreds of Palestinians in the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps in Beirut. The Marines, along with British, French and Italian troops, were expected to provide a modicum of order to help the fragile Lebanese government get on its feet.

But the U.S. force was soon seen as supporting the Christian side in Lebanon's civil war. Marines fought with Shiite Muslim militiamen in slums around the American base at Beirut airport, and U.S. Navy ships fired shells at mountain fortifications of Druse militiamen.

Early on Oct. 23, 1983, a suicide bomber drove an explosive-laden truck into a building where many of the U.S. troops were billeted, pancaking the poured concrete floors atop one another and killing 241 Americans. A near-simultaneous suicide attack killed 58 at the French multinational headquarters.

The attacks were blamed on allies of Hezbollah, the Shiite militia now battling Israel. The following February _ after the Lebanese army split along sectarian lines _ the Marines withdrew to U.S. Navy ships offshore and other multinational troops also left Lebanon.

Ellie

thedrifter
07-20-06, 05:28 PM
Japan, U.S. to Deploy Missile Interceptors
By HIROKO TABUCHI
Associated Press Writer

July 20, 2006, 4:16 PM EDT


TOKYO -- Japan and the U.S. on Thursday announced a plan to deploy advanced Patriot interceptor missiles at American bases on southern Okinawa island, and a top government spokesman called for more pressure on North Korea to stop its missile tests.

The U.S. government will have Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles operational by the end of the year and post 600 more troops on Okinawa, the Foreign Ministry said. Officials on the island 1,000 miles southwest of Tokyo questioned the need for the missiles.


Japan stressed the deployment would be purely for defense purposes.

"In view of the development, deployment and proliferation of ballistic missiles in the region, and the clear and present threats such as the recent missile launches by North Korea ... Japan will continue to do its utmost to build its ballistic missile defense capabilities in close cooperation with the U.S.," the statement said.

Protesters angered by the announcement stormed a local government building in Okinawa, where residents have expressed a strong desire for a large reduction in U.S. forces. The U.S. already has about 50,000 troops in Japan under a mutual security pact.

Defense Facilities Administration Agency chief Iwao Kitahara called on Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine to support the plan, but the governor denounced it, saying no threat required the move.

"The planned deployment is extremely regrettable, when there is no activity that requires one," Inamine said.

The PAC-3 are designed to intercept ballistic missiles, cruise missiles or aircraft.

The U.S. also has Patriots in South Korea. The U.S. military in 2004 completed deployment of PAC-3 missile batteries at Gwangju Air Base, about 150 miles south of Seoul. PAC-3 missiles have also been deployed in Taiwan.

Details on the location and timetable of the deployment announced last month came as Japan's top government spokesman said North Korea must be pressed so it has no choice but to stop its missile tests and return to nuclear talks.

"North Korea must be made to understand that if it does not alter its stance, there will be bad consequences," Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said at a privately sponsored speech in Tokyo.

North Korea drew international condemnation when it test-fired seven missiles July 5, including a Taepodong-2 believed capable of hitting parts of the U.S. The missiles fell harmlessly into the sea.

Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill, the top U.S. envoy to the stalled disarmament talks, said the United States wants to meet with South Korea, Japan, Russia and China next week to figure out a way to persuade North Korea to return to negotiations.

Hill said in Washington the goal was to include North Korea in talks on the sidelines of next week's annual meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ministers in Malaysia. But, he added, "the North Koreans don't seem to want to go to six-party meetings right now."

The Japanese government spokesman said Tokyo was open to informal six-country talks in Malaysia next week.

Pyongyang has refused to return to the six-country nuclear negotiations to protest U.S.-imposed financial restrictions over alleged counterfeiting and money laundering activities.

The U.N. Security Council has passed a resolution criticizing North Korea's missile tests and banning all U.N. member states from trading with Pyongyang in technology related to missiles or weapons of mass destruction.

Japan had pushed for a resolution backed by the threat of military force, but backed down when China threatened a veto amid Beijing's and Seoul's accusations that Tokyo was overreacting.

Ellie

Phantom Blooper
07-20-06, 05:42 PM
<CENTER>'History repeating itself' for U.S. officials in Lebanon crisis
By LISA HOFFMAN
Scripps Howard News Service</CENTER>


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July 17, 2006
Monday

WASHINGTON -- For Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, the current crisis in Lebanon might seem to be a "been-there, done-that" situation.


That's because, in essence, it is. When the United States evacuated American civilians from that war-wracked country in 1976 - almost exactly 30 years ago - Rumsfeld was secretary of defense and Cheney was a key part of the White House inner circle that oversaw the emergency rescue. <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=10 width=172 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width="100%">

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There even was a George Bush who took part in the decision-making, albeit the current president's father, George H.W. Bush, who was director of the CIA in late June 1976, when U.S. Marines evacuated about 250 Americans and foreign nationals as Lebanon's civil war worsened.
On Tuesday, when U.S. forces will kick into higher gear a major sea and air effort to ferry as many as 25,000 Americans from Beirut to escape an Israeli bombing offensive, Rumsfeld again is defense secretary, Cheney is vice president and the younger Bush is commander in chief.
"History is repeating itself," said Randy Gaddo, an ex-Marine staff sergeant and founding member of Beirut Veterans of America, an association of former service members who took part in any of a series of U.S. military missions in Lebanon since 1958.
The 1976 evacuation was ordered after the American ambassador to Lebanon and an aide were kidnapped and killed on June 16, 1976. Beirut was ground zero in an escalating, four-sided civil war, and conditions were deemed too dangerous to move Americans out by an overland convoy.
So, President Gerald Ford - after conferring with Rumsfeld, Bush and White House chief of staff Cheney, as well as his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, and national security adviser, Brent Scowcroft - ordered "Operation Fluid Drive" to commence.
Americans and Lebanese nationals were transported by a Marine landing craft and helicopters to a five-ship U.S. naval task force that took the evacuees to safety. About 1,500 Americans opted to stay behind in Beirut.
At the time, news accounts noted that White House and Pentagon officials had devoted a substantial amount of attention to what was a relatively easy mission. Critics portrayed the episode as one designed to showcase Ford - who was facing a tough race against Georgian Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election - in a tough, "presidential" role.
This time, President Bush has ordered the USS Gonzalez destroyer to accompany a commercial cruise ship that will serve as a primary evacuation destination. He also has directed Marine CH53 Super Stallion helicopters from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit into action.
No one is sure how many Americans will want to leave, although the U.S. Embassy in Beirut said 15,000 have registered there, but far from all have indicated they want to leave.
Whatever the number, Marines will be prepared, Gaddo said, noting the Corps' expertise in evacuating civilians in even the most dire of circumstances.
"They've got it down," said Gaddo, 53, of Peachtree City, Ga.



<CENTER>Contact Lisa Hoffman at HoffmanL(at)shns.com
Distributed to subscribers for publication by
Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com (http://www.scrippsnews.com)
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