[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 20]
[Senate]
[Page 27945]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     24TH ANNIVERSARY OF BOMBING OF MARINE CORPS BARRACKS IN BEIRUT

  Mr. WEBB. Mr. President, 24 years ago today, at 6:20 in the morning, 
in Beirut, a yellow Mercedes-Benz truck drove into the Beirut 
International Airport, where the 1st Battalion 8th Marines was keeping 
its headquarters. The truck crashed through a barbed wire fence, went 
through the parking lot, passed between two sentry posts, and then 
crashed through a gate and into the lobby of the large building where 
the marines were keeping their headquarters.
  At that point, the explosives were set off in this truck, ending up 
with the deaths of 241 American military servicemembers. This was the 
largest loss of life for the U.S. Marine Corps in one single day since 
Iwo Jima. It was the largest loss of life in one day for American 
service people from the beginning of the Tet Offensive of 31 January 
1968, and it remains the largest single loss of life in one day since 
that time.
  I believe it is appropriate for us to take a few minutes and remember 
today the sacrifices that were made and the contributions the United 
States was attempting to make in that particular circumstance.
  I make these comments as someone who is proud to have served in the 
U.S. Marine Corps, who has a brother who served in the Marine Corps, 
who has a son who is now serving in the Marine Corps, and as someone 
who covered the marines in Beirut as a journalist and had recently left 
the country when this incident occurred.
  The marines who went to Beirut came in peace. They had been sent in 
after several incidents occurred regarding multiparty incidents, which 
I will describe in a minute, at the request of the Lebanese Government. 
We had a U.S. Marine Corps representation. We had military people from 
the United Kingdom, Italy, and France. They were asked to help separate 
the warring factions inside Beirut during a vicious civil war and also 
to help separate the end result of an Israeli incursion, in which the 
Israelis were attempting to take out large elements of the Palestinian 
Liberation Organization.
  So our marines began this ``visibility'' presence in September of 
1982. They had been there through different cycles of rotation for a 
little more than a year when this event occurred.
  They operated under enormously difficult rules of engagement. The 
situation in Beirut at that time was rather similar to what we see in 
Iraq today in terms of having a weak central government and many 
different factions around it.
  On any given day, our marines in Beirut could be bumping up against 
Shia militia, Sunni militia, Christian Phalange, Druze militia, the 
Syrians over the border on one side--as well as with French, U.K., and 
Italian military units all operating in this environment. The Israeli 
military, which at this point had pulled back over the Chouf mountains, 
also was present.
  These were very fine marines. I spent a good bit of time with them on 
their different positions. They were overall commanded by COL Tim 
Geraghty, an extraordinarily capable officer who had spent more than 2 
tours in Vietnam. Their battalion commander, LTC Howard Gerlach, had 
done a tour and a half in Vietnam as infantry leader.
  The rules of engagement were so strict in Beirut at the time that 
when our marines took fire, they could only return fire with the same 
type of weapon they were receiving fire from. These very restrictive 
rules ended up contributing to the situation in which the truck bomb 
went off. The sentries at the gate where the truck came in were not 
even allowed to have ammunition in their weapons at that time. They 
were precluded from being able to take out this truck when it entered 
because once they saw what was happening, they had to attempt to load 
their weapons and then fire at it.
  This was an incident which combines so many different factors that 
are still in play right now in the Middle East. We should be 
remembering it. We should be remembering when we look back on it that 
the United States must play its hand very carefully in that part of the 
world. As one marine said to me during a firefight at one outpost I was 
covering as a journalist:

       It is always difficult when you get involved in a five-
     sided argument.

  We ought to think about that when we are looking at what is going on 
in other parts of the Middle East today.
  But the main purpose of me speaking today is to urge all of us never 
to forget the courage and the risk and, ultimately, the sacrifice that 
so many of our young people are required to make on behalf of our 
country and under the direction of the leadership of those who decide 
to send them into harm's way.

                          ____________________