GOP and it's Middle East Glass House

While the GOP and it’s one dimensional presidential candidate Mitt Romney attack President Obama over the awful loss of life of members of our diplomatic corps in Libya, I want to share something.  While the blood lust on the right calls for immediate retaliation and cutting off of funds to the fledgling Libyan transition government, I remind them of their hero Ronald Reagan’s complete failures in Lebanon:

·         On April 18, 1983 a delivery van pulled up to the front door of the U.S. embassy in Beirut and detonated, collapsing the building and killing 46 people (including 16 Americans) and wounding over a hundred others.

·         On April 23, 1983, Reagan announced: "The tragic and brutal attack on our embassy in Beirut has shocked us all and filled us with grief. Yet, because of this latest crime we are more resolved than ever to help achieve the urgent and total withdrawal of all American forces from Lebanon, or I should say, all foreign forces. I’m sorry. Mistake."

·         On October 23, 1983, a lone Muslim drove a Mercedes truck through a parking lot, past two Marine guard posts, through an open gate, and into the lobby of the Marine headquarters building in Beirut, where he detonated the equivalent of six tons of explosives. The explosion killed 243 marines. A second truck bomb moments later killed 58 French soldiers.

·         On October 27, 1983 in a televised speech Reagan portrayed the attack as unstoppable, declaring that the truck "crashed through a series of barriers, including a chain-link fence and barbed-wire entanglements. The guards opened fire, but it was too late." Reagan also claimed the attack proved the U.S. mission was succeeding: "Would the terrorists have launched their suicide attacks against the multinational force if it were not doing its job? . . . It is accomplishing its mission."

·         White House press spokesman Larry Speakes announced after the special investigation into what led to the attack: "We don’t quarrel with the fact that the CIA and other intelligence-gathering agencies have been crippled by decisions of the previous administration, and we are in the process of rebuilding capabilities. But it takes time . . . to re-establish our intelligence-gathering methods."

·         By early Reagan decides to withdraw all Marines to ships in the Mediterranean and then orders the USS New Jersey Battleship to fire 300 rounds into various neighborhoods in retaliation. 

·         The weakness by the Reagan administration led to the rise of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and their proxy Hezbollah.

This is why I think Conservatives who believe Reagan and Bush were tough and Clinton and Obama weak are lying self-delusional imbeciles.  Reagan’s utter failure in Lebanon led to the rise of Iran and Hezbollah and worse, three different attacks on U.S. troops in 18 months in Beirut smacks of utter incompetence.  And they still had the brass to blame the Carter administration.  Fast forward 18 years later and you have Bush’s great failure of sleeping on the job and ignoring all warnings of an imminent attack from al-Qaeda; and once again the previous administration was blamed.

Lesson learned?  Republicans:

·         Talk tough

·         Blame others

·         Are incompetent

·         Have no problem sacrificing lives of our soldiers

·         Make things worse after they meddle

 

So Mr. Romney, you and your cabal should just shut up, sit down, and let the adults get to work.