The cash-strapped American empire has become creative at extortion. Applying its customary double-standards and blame game, it has made death singularly profitable by legalizing extortion and demanding compensation for its military personnel killed while occupying other countries -- and placing the blame on a third party.
For the umpteenth time, a U.S. court has passed judgment against Iran for the 1983 marine barracks bombing in Lebanon. To date, a total of 8.8 billion dollars has been issued against Iran for the death of 241 American soldiers in Lebanon -- over $36 million dollars per soldier. These judgments are not without ramifications.
The Blame Game
According to official accounts, truck bombs blasted the building housing American "peace keepers". The reality is that there were no American "pace keepers" in Beirut at the time of the blasts. The clearly defined mission of the U.S. marines deployed on August 20 to supervise the evacuation of the PLO guerillas was accomplished by the end of the first week of September. The troops withdrew to ships in the Mediterranean Sea. No peacekeepers were harmed during this mission.
However, 19 days later, after the Israeli invasion and occupation of West Beirut, and the brutal Sabra -- Sahtila massacres under the supervision of Ariel Sharon, a larger US force returned to Beirut -- this was with a very different mission in mind. Theirs was not only to secure the airport, but to help the new Gemayel regime "consolidate' power [i] .
Ronald Regan had decided to launch a "second Cold War' in the Middle East and in line with this strategy, the additional forces were showing a permanent US presence in the region. In Lebanon, some 100 field grade US Army and Special Forces officers were training "the most highly motivated" Lebanese brigades, that is, those with strong Phalangist militia components [ii] . According to the "Britannica Concise Encyclopedia', these were the same militias who under Sharon's supervision massacred 800- several thousand women, children and elderly at Sabra and Sahtila. [iii] --Peace-keeping" had taken on a new definition.
By September 1983, as part of this new mission, U.S. warships were shelling Syrian and Druze militia positions outside Beirut, and Marine ground forces were trading artillery and sniper fire with Shi'a and Druze fighters [iv] . The October 23, 1983 truck bomb attacks were an inevitable consequence of U.S .actions.
The Untied States courts have implicated and passed judgment against Iran for the bombings although Iran was not involved. However, it is safe to surmise that the resistance looked to Iran for inspiration. Iran had ejected America's man in Tehran, the Shah, and with it America, with a simple religious ideology -- Islam. Regrettably, America is demanding millions of dollars from Iran for inspiring resistance, thus making a mockery of law so as to enable extortion.
Consequences of the Blame game
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Soraya has lived and studied in-Iran, UK, France, and has obtained her Master's degree in Public Diplomacy from USC Annenberg and USC School for International Studies, Los Angeles.- She is an independent researcher, public speaker, radio (more...)
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