[lit-ideas] Iran (2), First Front

  • From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 08:28:56 -0800

Ilan Berman on page 7 writes "Under Hezbollah's watchful eye, Lebanon's
Beka'a Valley became a notorious terrorist hub, a place where radicals of
all stripes form the world over received combat, explosives and operational
training.  And as Hezbollah's notoriety grew, so did its influence,
spreading from the Beka'a to Beirut, and form there throughout southern
Lebanon.  In its day-to-day activities, Hezbollah may have focused on the
struggle against Israel and the creation of an Islamic state in Lebanon, but
both in dogma and in political outlook, the organization reflected the
mindset of its creator and master, Tehran.  As the organization's
ideological platform, articulated publicaly for the first time in 1985, made
clear: 'We view the Iranian regime as the vanguard and new nucleus of the
leading Islamic State in the world. We abide by the orders of one single
wise and just leadership, represented by "Wali Faqih" and personified by
Khomeini.'

 

"Hezbollah's ascendance in Lebanon marked the start of a massive wave of
terror - one that, like the ambitions of the militia itself, was directed
far beyond the confines of the Israeli-Arab conflict.  In April 1983,
Hezbollah orchestrated a truck bombing that ravaged the U.S. embassy in
Beirut, Lebanon, killing sixty-three people, including seventeen Americans.
Among them was Kenneth Haas, the CIA's station chief in Beirut.  Just six
months later, in October 1983, a similar truck bomb exploded at the U.S.
Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, killing 241 Marines and wounding some 100
others.  Then, in March 1984, Hezbollah operatives kidnapped - and
ultimately killed - the CIA's new station chief in Beirut, William Buckley.
Seven months after that, in September 1984, another Hezbollah truck bombing,
this time outside the U.S. Embassy annex in Aukar, Lebanon, killed
twenty-four people, including two U.S. military personnel.

 

"These activities not only mirrored Iranian hostility toward the United
States, they were actively orchestrated and supported by the Islamic
Republic.  The casualties, in turn, took their toll on American public
opinion, and by late 1984, the Reagan administration had ordered a
large-scale pullout of U.S. troops.  Lebanon's terrorist powerhouse and its
masters in Tehran had secured a vital victory."

 

 

Lawrence

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