We must remember the history. We must tell what happened. Today, we remember and honor those lost in the Beirut Lebanon Marine Barracks bombing on the 40th anniversary of that cowardly attack. In those attacks, there were two separate attacks in one day, a total of 307 personnel were murdered. From the United States, 220 Marines, 18 sailors and 3 soldiers were killed. An additional 128 U.S. personnel were wounded. The French lost 58 Airborne troops and 15 were injured. We must remember their sacrifice in order to honor it.

We must remember their sacrifice in light of the aggression and violence we are witnessing from Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and their apologists today. The Middle East is red-hot and, as Deanna alerted you, Americans have been warned by our Consulate to leave Lebanon. Hamas is getting most of the attention and Hezbollah is getting butt-hurt.

From the New Yorker in 2019, here are personal recollections of the Beirut bombing in 1983:

Thirty-six years ago, a yellow Mercedes truck loaded with twelve thousand pounds of explosives sped into the barracks of U.S. Marine peacekeepers in Beirut. It was 6:22 a.m. Lance Corporal Eddie DiFranco, on guard duty nearby, was the only one who saw the bomber. “He looked right at me, smiled,” DiFranco said later. “Soon as I saw the truck, I knew what was going to happen.” The truck set off the largest non-nuclear explosion on Earth since the Second World War. The four-story concrete building imploded; marines were crushed like paper dolls. The collapse set off a brown mushroom cloud over the Lebanese capital. The thundering explosion woke up everyone, including me, as I was slumbering on a balmy Sunday morning. Two hundred and forty-one marines, most of them asleep because reveille was still eight minutes away, were killed. It was the largest loss of U.S. military life in a single incident since Iwo Jima. A special memorial was established at Arlington Cemetery for the victims.

“The Marine bombing was the Pearl Harbor of the Middle East,” Fred Hof, a former U.S. Army attaché in Beirut who investigated the bombing as part of the Long Commission, reflected this week. The attack—the deadliest of three suicide bombings against the military and two U.S. Embassies in Beirut over sixteen months—marked a turning point for American engagement in the region. Four months later, the United States opted to withdraw abruptly from Beirut. The collapse of that mission resonates, hauntingly, as U.S. Special Forces soldiers pull out of Syria now. Once again, the United States is hastily retreating—abandoning a mission, stranding allies, creating a vacuum for adversaries to quickly fill, enabling Islamic extremists, weakening American credibility globally, and leaving the Middle East, the world’s most volatile corner, even more unstable.

40 years ago today in Beirut:
220 Marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers — died in the explosion of the barracks, according to the Pentagon’s tally. Fifty-eight French troops and six ­civilians were also killed.
Hezbollah has been our enemy for a long time https://t.co/yoi3Y5DGT1

— David Asman (@DavidAsmanfox) October 23, 2023

Yes, Hezbollah/Islamic Jihad has been OUR enemy for a long, long time. Months before the Beirut bombing, our Marines were dodging snipers and general harassment from Hezbollah. After the bombing, President Ronald Reagan pulled our Troops out of Lebanon. What’s different is that nowadays our nation’s enemies are in Congress like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.

Maybe it’s because my late Dad was a Marine that this struck me so hard when it happened. The creatures of the Squad or Hamas Caucus don’t have that kind of skin in the game or history. Their histories and loyalties have nothing to do with service to this country. For the 40th Anniversary of the Beirut Bombing, a Maine recorded his experience. It is well-worth watching.

The size of the blast hole is enormous.

The Wall Street Journal makes comparisons to the situation today:

Monday is the 40th anniversary of the worst day of Ronald Reagan’s Presidency, when Islamic terrorists used truck bombs to kill 307 people, including 241 Americans, at the Marine barracks in Beirut. The echoes of that assault can be heard in the debate over how Israel should respond to the Oct. 7 slaughter of some 1,400 innocents on its soil, including at least 31 Americans.

A group called Islamic Jihad, a predecessor to the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, took responsibility for the bombing. Many U.S. officials believe Iran was behind the suicide bombings, though the Reagan Administration never fixed specific blame. It also didn’t respond militarily, and Reagan withdrew U.S. soldiers from Beirut.

The bombing was a strategic victory for the jihadists and Iran, and to this day many believe it persuaded Iran and its proxies that they could get away with killing Americans. Iran learned a similar lesson during the second Iraq war when Iran’s “shaped” IEDs killed hundreds of GIs before the 2007 surge of forces defeated the insurgency. Iran’s proxies continue to target Americans, and Hamas now holds several American hostages in Gaza.

Like the Reagan Administration at the time, President Biden says the U.S. lacks definitive evidence that Iran planned or knew in advance about the Oct. 7 massacre. But surely the U.S. knows Iran bears some complicity given its arming and financing of Hamas. Will Iran again pay no price for killing Americans?

The answer is – probably not. We no longer have that intestinal fortitude. We have a bad case of both-side ism.

Today, on this 40th Anniversary of the Beirut, Lebanon Marine Barracks Bombing, we remember and honor their service and ultimate sacrifice.

Featured Image: Crethi Plethi/Flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commmons