The Daily Flashback: Raygun's Beirut Blunder

Wasting tax dollars on Benghazi? Then why not Beirut!:

On October 3, 1983, a truck full of explosives hit the Marine Barracks at the airport in Beirut, Lebanon. The Marines were ordered there by then president Ronald Reagan. The result was 241 American service men killed: 220 Marines, 18 Sailors, and 3 Soldiers. Wounded: 128. Of those wounded, 13 would later die of their injuries and are counted among the dead. This was the biggest single day loss of Marines since Iwo Jima 1945.

The fact is these Marines should not have been in this position. The Marines were under strict orders not to load their weapons. This order came from President Reagan himself. The commander of the Marines in Beirut, Col. Timothy J. Geraghty stated, “It didn’t take a military expert to realize that our troops had been placed in an indefensible situation. Anyone following the situation in Lebanon in ordinary news reports could realize a tragedy was in the making” (phillyburbs.com)...