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"The US is
probably more unpopular than it has ever been across the Middle
East."
Bush
and Blair Risk Repeating the 1982 Fiasco
By PATRICK COCKBURN
Amman.
The arrival of the multinational force
in Lebanon in 1982 brought with it a train of disasters. I still
recall that great concrete sandwich near the airport that was
all that remained of the US barracks in which 241 Marines died
after it was hit by a suicide bomber on 23 October 1983. Elsewhere
in Beirut, 58 French paratroopers were entombed when the building
in which they were living was rammed by a second vehicle packed
with explosives.
There is no reason why a multinational
force landing in Lebanon in 2006 will not face the same dangers,
and possibly suffer the same disasters, as 24 years ago. Its
arrival will be opposed wholly by the Shia community, 40 per
cent of the population, since the force will be seen as the creature
of the US, which has so wholly supported the Israeli onslaught.
A multinational force is also
likely to reopen the never entirely healed wounds of the Lebanese
civil war because some Lebanese--mostly Christian--may support
it, and others--mainly Muslim--will oppose it. It will not be
considered neutral by the Lebanese, or the rest of the Arab world.
It is extraordinary, given the fate of the so-called "coalition"
in Iraq, of which the US and Britain are the only operative members,
that any other country would now consider sending troops to Lebanon.
The record of the multinational
force in Lebanon was futile, shameful and bloody by turns. Its
first purpose was to cover the withdrawal of the Palestine Liberation
Organisation after the Israeli invasion, in which 20,000 people,
mostly Lebanese civilians, were to die. There were US Marines,
French paratroopers, Italian soldiers and a British contingent
who pulled back to ships offshore after the PLO had withdrawn.
Their mission appeared over.
In fact, it had scarcely begun.
On September 14, 1982 the newly-elected Lebanese President,
Bashir Gemayel, was addressing a meeting of his party in Christian
east Beirut when he was killed by a bomb. On September 16-18
Israeli forces allowed Lebanese Christian militias into the
Sabra and Chatila Palestinian camps where they butchered men,
women and children. I remember the sweet smell of the rotting
bodies when I walked through the camps a day later.
President Ronald Reagan sent
a new contingent of 1,800 Marines to Beirut, joined by 1,500
French Foreign Legion paratroopers, 1,400 Italian troops and,
a few months later, a smaller British force. It was officially
neutral, but meant to support the Lebanese government under President
Amin Gemayel, who was allied with the US and Israel. But the
Lebanese government was seen as Christian-dominated by many.
On April18, 1983, a suicide bomber destroyed the US embassy
in Beirut. In May the Israelis withdrew from around the capital.
When Druze fighters drove the
Lebanese army out of the mountains it was supported by gunfire
from US vessels offshore and American aircraft. The US was deemed
to have joined the Lebanese war on the side of the Christians
and Israel's allies. Retaliation came when the US Marines and
French paratroopers were slaughtered. The US blamed Hizbollah,
Syria and Iran for the suicide attacks. By December the US was
attacking Syrian anti-aircraft positions in the Bekaa valley,
but lost two planes shot down. In February 2004 President Reagan
ordered the surviving US troops out of Lebanon.
A multinational force sent
to Lebanon will be seen much as the US and British in Iraq. They
will be fought as a new detachment of crusaders. The US is probably
more unpopular than it has ever been across the Middle East.
Even if there are no American troops in the new multinational
force they will be seen as opening another front in the West's
perceived war on Islam. They will be joining a war, not ending
it.
Now
Available
from CounterPunch Books!
The Case
Against Israel
By Michael Neumann
CounterPunch
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