When Hezbollah, backed by the Stalinist Syrian regime and the newly born Islamic Theobarbarity in Iran, blew up the US Marines Headquarters in Beirut on October 23, 1983, what did the "patriotic" republican asshole Ronald Reagan do? He packed his remaining Marines on board the USS New Jersey and fled like a rabbit, abandoning Lebanon to Syria and Iran. Those two countries then proceeded to complete their takeover of Lebanon: hijacking flight TWA 847 and killing US Navy Diver Dean Stethem, kidnapping dozens of western academics, journalists, and Christian clergymen from the streets of Beirut, holding them hostages and trading those whom they did not kill for concession after concession from the US.
Those concessions included selling weapons to Iran, bombing the Lebanese Christian enclave that was still resisting this unholy US-Syria-Iran-Israel alliance, evicting the last free Lebanese government in 1990 thanks to an agreement that allowed Syria to cross the Israeli red line of using its airforce over Lebanese airspace, and installing a Syrian puppet regime in Lebanon. It was after that absolute surrender by the US to - or collusion with - the Syrian-Iranian alliance that Hezbollah began to grow and arm itself from Iran through Syria and into Lebanon, to become the threat that is causing the US today to send warships to the Lebanese coast.
All of this treachery by the US - mostly by the Republican administrations of Reagan, Bush Sr. and Bush Jr - was geared to take us where we stand today: Israel needs the Hezbollah threat along its borders with Lebanon to use it as a pretext to invade and annex south Lebanon. Which is why the acquisition by Hezbollah of its 150,000 missiles and other advanced military paraphernalia over the past 30 years was tolerated, indeed encouraged. When in 2000, Israel decided to withdraw from the southern strip it had occupied since 1982, it handed over the region back to Hezbollah, supposedly its worst enemy. It could have coordinated with the UN force (UNIFIL) stationed there and handed over the Lebanese south to the UN and the Lebanese Armed Forces, thus preventing a return of Hezbollah to the border region.
This would have given the Lebanese government breathing space to recover the attributes of a sovereign state, and it would have prevented the collapse of Lebanon that we are witnessing today. But Israel preferred to maintain the useful Hezbollah threat along its northern border and the associated instability and collapse of the Lebanese state.
Therefore, we are faced with the following scenario in the south of Lebanon: With Hezbollah, Syria and Iran now in full control of Lebanon (unlike in 2006 when Hezbollah was not part of the government structure), and posing an "existential" threat to Israel, the legal pretext for invading and annexing south Lebanon, including the historic Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon, is now available for Israel.
Contrary to repetitive assertions by US officials that the movement of warships (see below) towards the Lebanese coast is merely a "deterrent", the US is essentially pooling its military power behind the Israelis as the latter prepare to invade south Lebanon. The US is indeed backing the Israeli project, as the declarations by Yoav Gallant in Washington DC indicate, and is now sending its warships to assist Israel in completing its invasion. Because it has been hired by Israel to do this job, the US is not likely to flee from Hezbollah like it did in 1983. Unless or until, as is often the case, the body bags begin to pile up stateside.
One thing is for certain: Tiny Lebanon stands to lose 15 % of its territory to the expansionist Zionist colony of Israel, thanks to a longstanding collusion between the US, Israel, Iran and Syria. The Shiite population of south Lebanon will be pushed north into the eastern Bekaa Valley where, together with the Syrian refugees (2.5 million), they will form the nucleus of a Muslim Lebanon that will merge with Syria.
The central western Mount Lebanon range (mostly Christian) will become the nucleus of a small Christian Lebanon that will basically be a return to the Moutassarifiyah (Governorate) of Mount Lebanon that existed between 1840 and 1918 before its expansion into the failed monstrosity of Greater Lebanon.
Simply put, the price the Christians of Lebanon have to pay for their independence from the Muslims is the loss of the two Phoenician cities of Tyre and Lebanon to the Israeli Jewish colony in Palestine. Having gained that new territory, the Zionists might give more land to the Palestinians in the Negev desert.
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US moves forces closer to Israel and Lebanon amid concerns of escalating cross-border fire
Oren Liebermann and Haley Britzky, CNN
Fri, June 28, 2024
Rabih Daher/AFP/Getty Images
The US is moving forces closer to Israel and Lebanon amid concerns of escalating cross-border fire, according to two US officials, including forces able to carry out an evacuation of American citizens.
The USS Wasp and its Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), which includes the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), moved into the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday, the Navy said. The deployment was part of a “long-planned effort,” one official said.
But the concerns of escalation between Israel and Hezbollah led the US to move the ships further into the eastern Mediterranean, the second official said, as Israeli officials have said they are prepared for “intense action” in southern Lebanon.
On Thursday, the State Department once again urged American citizens to “strongly reconsider travel” to Lebanon, warning that the “security environment remains complex and can change quickly.” The US has not ordered an evacuation of US citizens from Lebanon – called a non-combatant evacuation – but the White House has planned for the possibility.
The Wasp ARG, which deployed at the beginning of June, includes the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp, amphibious transport dock ship USS New York, and dock landing ship USS Oak Hill. The Oak Hill was already in the region after transiting the Strait of Gibraltar on June 18, the Navy said Thursday.
The 24th MEU, which operates from the USS Wasp, is capable of carrying out special operations, and one of its mission essential tasks is its ability to execute an evacuation.
In 2006, during the last war between Israel and Hezbollah, the State Department ordered a non-combatant evacuation for American citizens in Lebanon, ultimately evacuating approximately 15,000 Americans in about two weeks.
The U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship USS Wasp and the Marines aboard are being sent to the eastern Mediterranean to serve as a deterrent and provide the U.S. military with options as tensions continue to rise between Hezbollah and Israel along the border with Lebanon, according to three U.S. officials.
The officials stressed that the ship's movement is not an indication that the U.S. is planning to move American citizens out of Lebanon, but that it is moving for deterrence reasons similar to the earlier deployments of the amphibious ship USS Bataan and the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford following Hamas' Oct. 7 attack against Israel.
Currently on a scheduled deployment to Europe, the Wasp's transit toward the eastern Mediterranean will serve to deter the war between Hamas and Israel from becoming a broader regional conflict, U.S. officials said. The ship's move "is being done for deterrence purposes and to promote regional stability," said one of the officials.
The Wasp will be joined in the eastern Mediterranean by the USS Oak Hill, which has already been operating in the Mediterranean. The USS New York, the third ship that makes up the Wasp's Amphibious Ready Group, will soon join the other two ships in the eastern Mediterranean. a U.S. official said.
Amphibious Ready Groups and the 2,200 Marines aboard are trained for a wide variety of missions, including the evacuation of large numbers of American citizens from conflict zones.
The Wasp is currently equipped with AV-8 Harrier jets and helicopters, but it is not currently carrying tilt-rotor MV-22 Osprey aircraft that can transport personnel over long distances and which would typically be used to transport a large number of people.
Another U.S. official stressed that the Wasp's movement toward the eastern Mediterranean is intended to provide American leaders with options. and that no decision has been made for the ship and its Marines to assist American citizens to leave Lebanon.
Recent weeks have seen an escalation in the clashes between Israeli and Hezbollah forces along the border between Israel and Lebanon. increasing concerns that Israel could soon be engaged in a second war.
U.S. efforts to secure a diplomatic resolution to the tensions along that border have so far been unsuccessful.
"We will not accept Hezbollah troops and military formations on the border with Israel," Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told reporters on Tuesday. "We will not accept threats to our northern communities."
"We are willing to do everything in our power to protect our people," he added. "We don't want to get into a war because it's not good for Israel."
The USS Wasp carries most of the 2,200 Marines from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) that left the U.S. in May for its deployment to the Sixth Fleet's area of operations in Europe. The remaining Marines from the 24th MEU are distributed aboard the USS Oak Hill and the USS New York.
Earlier Thursday, the U.S. Navy had announced that the Wasp had transited through the Strait of Gibraltar to enter the Mediterranean Sea after having participated in a large exercise in the Baltic Sea.
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