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From: pwb@fritz.UUCP (Phil Bonesteele)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.social,net.women,net.flame
Subject: Re: Re: To Hell With Diplomacy
Message-ID: <3233@fritz.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 9-Jul-85 14:43:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: fritz.3233
Posted: Tue Jul  9 14:43:56 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Jul-85 11:20:41 EDT
References: <373@aurora.UUCP>
Reply-To: pwb@<373@aurora.UUCP>.UUCP (Phil Bonesteele)
Organization: FileNet Corp., Costa Mesa, Ca.
Lines: 54
Xref: watmath net.politics:9888 net.social:815 net.women:6354 net.flame:11102
Summary: 

In article <> al@aurora.UUCP (Al Globus) writes:
>> >I know its hard to be a democratic society and refrain from military
>> >intervention.  But that time has come !!!
>
>Correct me if I am wrong, but a year or two back I distinctly remember
>news reports about U.S. naval vessels blasting Lebanese villages with
>high explosives.  I think it was a battleship and a few destroyers.  I
>can also remember TV pictures of Lebanese homes reduced to rubble.  I
>don't remember the casualty figures, but given the general inaccuracy
>of unspotted naval gunfire they were probably quite large, and very likely
>civilian.  Shelling people is an act of war.
>
> . . .
>
> (more justification of attacks on U.S. embassy, U.S. Marines, etc.)

If  my memory  of those  events serves  me correctly,  you are indeed
wrong.  The Battleship New  Jersey and  said destroyers  fired on GUN
EMPLACEMENTS ONLY, and with great accuracy at that  (our modern naval
vessels are equipped with automated means of determining trajectories
of incoming rounds, and thus the exact coordinates of  the firing gun
emplacement ...  of  course these coordinates can be fed to automated
fire control systems ...  isn't it a wonder what  computers have done
for surgical warfare?).  The rounds fired by the U.S.   naval vessels
were in RESPONSE to shells fired at  the ground  based Marines and/or
the ships themselves from gun emplacements in the hills around Beirut
and in the Bekka Valley.  The objective was to  silence the offending
guns and the Navy  was quite  successful in  achieving that objective
with little loss of life (except for those stationed at the offending
guns),  a minimal  number of  rounds, and  without "blasting Lebanese
villages with high explosives".  Never during the U.S.'s
participation in the MULTINATIONAL peace  keeping force  did any U.S.
military unit fire without having  been fired  upon.   Remember, as a
jesture of this policy, the Marines  stationed at  the Beirut airport
were ordered to maintain their weapons unloaded.  

I  would  be  pleased  if Mr.   Globus  would attempt  to restate his
justifications of the bombing attacks on the U.S.   Marines stationed
at  the  Beirut airport  and the  U.S.   Embassy, and  the recent TWA
hijacking in light of the above recollection of the past  events.  My
opinion, briefly stated, is that the reasons for  the various attacks
on U.S.  personnel, installations, and civilians is not  as simple as
Mr.  Globus presents in his original article.  


			Phil Bonesteele
			FileNet Corp.
			Costa Mesa, CA
			{ucbvax,decvax,ihnp4}!trwrb!felix!pwb



"Government after all is a very simple thing."  - Warren G. Harding, 29th
							President of the U.S.