There are comparisons between Bush, Reagan (subscription required)
Published Thursday, March 8, 2007 12:25:20 AM Central Time

Dear Editor,

In an editorial in the EagleHerald Feb. 28, Kathryn Lopez, columnist, complained that George W. Bush was afraid to act like a real cowboy, the way Ronald Reagan did, who was a real "gunslinger." It is true that both presidents intervened in the Middle East and both found the area far more complicated than they had first anticipated.

In June 1982, Israeli forces under Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invaded Lebanon in an effort to destroy the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) which used the refugee camps in south Beirut as a base in attacks to try to force Israeli forces to give up the West Bank, which Israel had occupied since the Six Day War in June 1967. In return for Israel stopping its shelling of the Palestinian camps, U.S. Ambassador Philip Habib arranged for the PLO to leave Beirut and settle in Tunisia. A small trilateral force of French, Italian and American troops supervised the withdrawal of the Palestinians. With PLO forces gone, Israeli forces allied with the Christian Phalangists seized Beirut. What followed was 15 years of civil war. Every Lebanese political party had its own militia. Meanwhile, Syria occupied eastern Lebanon, Israel southern Lebanon, and the remnants of the PLO, the northern part of the country.

The U.S. Marines were isolated at their base at the Beirut airport In August 1983, Congress threatened to invoke the War Powers Act which would force the president to withdraw troops within 90 days. (The Reagan government claimed that the act did not apply because the U.S. was not officially at war.) As the violence in Lebanon increased, the American government sent 40 ships, including three aircraft carriers, from the Navy's 6th Fleet to the eastern Mediterranean. In an effort to aid the Pro-Western Lebanese militias, U.S. ships fired 16-inch naval guns into the Lebanese countryside, destroying villages in what were regarded as hostile areas.

On Oct. 23,1983, a suicide truck loaded with TNT drove into the Marine barracks in South Beirut killing 230 Marines. President Reagan denounced this "despicable" act, and said that it was "central to our credibility" to keep the Marines in Lebanon. Two days later, on Oct. 25, 1983, President Reagan announced that 1,900 Marines had invaded the British Commonwealth country of Grenada. A leftist government with ties to Cuba had seized power in the island country of 120,000. Reagan believed the new leftist government to be a threat to U.S. interests in the Caribbean. Within 48 hours, Reagan had changed the subject.

This may be an example of what Ms Lopez means when she refers to "Reagan's magic was his skill for communication." Feb. 7, 1984, the president announced that he was "redeploying" the Marines to the ships off Beirut. Feb. 26, 1984, the Marines were gone. Reagan, meanwhile, began preparing for running for a second term.

It was springtime in America.