Many people in Washington seem to see the unfolding war in Lebanon as revenge for past U.S. troop deaths. After the Israeli air force killed a group of commanders of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah—along with several children—everyone from Biden administration official Brett McGurk to Sen. Tom Cotton (R–Ark.) thanked Israel for dishing out justice. As it turns out, slain Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil had helped kill dozens of U.S. Marines, CIA officers, and other American personnel in 1983.
Most of those Americans had been sent to Lebanon as part of the Multinational Force, a U.S.-led peacekeeping effort in the wake of an Israeli invasion. Back then, many Americans didn't believe that U.S. forces should be there in the first place. According to a Pentagon report from the time, U.S. intelligence had predicted that U.S. forces would likely face "entrapment in Lebanese internal conflicts." None other than then-Sen. Joe Biden questioned whether the Reagan administration had the authority to get involved in the Lebanese war.
