• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Everybody saw this coming.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

I really should read my own blog.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Let’s finish the job.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

T R E 4 5 O N

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Mobile Menu

  • Winnable House Races
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Balloon Juice 2023 Pet Calendar (coming soon)
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • War in Ukraine
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • 2021-22 Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Late Night History Notes Open Thread

Late Night History Notes Open Thread

by Anne Laurie|  October 23, 201811:39 pm| 17 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, Decline and Fall

FacebookTweetEmail

On this day in 1983, 241 US service personnel — including 220 Marines and 21 other service personnel — were killed by an Iranian terrorist driving a truck bomb into a Marine compound in Beirut, Lebanon. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility. pic.twitter.com/3hJsUIhZtk

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 23, 2018

Reagan’s Benghazi. Only difference is the Beirut bombing was worse and then his administration sold weapons to Iran. Which was Reagan’s Fast and Furious except bigger, and there was a massive coverup and everybody got pardoned.

— Eric Gyrne (@EGyrne) October 23, 2018

3 years later the future President of the NRA would be caught buying and selling arms to the same groups and countries responsible. https://t.co/SB97pv2lMW

— Zedward D Wood Junior (@Zeddary) October 23, 2018

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Sweet Jeebus Georgians, How Is This Even a Race
Next Post: As Promised, the New Bow »

Reader Interactions

17Comments

  1. 1.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 23, 2018 at 11:43 pm

    Parents’ Weekend, my sophomore year.

  2. 2.

    Ladyraxterinok

    October 23, 2018 at 11:47 pm

    The Marine killings no longer exist in GOPers’ memory. During Bill’s admin some US military personal were killed (in Africa?) The GOP went crazy, demanded he resign, etc. IIRC, NO ONE – certainly not M$M – even mentioned the marines who died on Reagan’s watch.

  3. 3.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 23, 2018 at 11:49 pm

    @Ladyraxterinok: Somalia.

  4. 4.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    October 23, 2018 at 11:55 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: …and the Marines were already in Somalia when Bill took office.

  5. 5.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 24, 2018 at 12:01 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: IIRC the fight was the 10th Mountain, a Ranger Battalion, and the Delta folks. It was an army thing.

  6. 6.

    Mike in DC

    October 24, 2018 at 12:05 am

    When danger reared its ugly head, he bravely turned his tail and fled, brave, brave, brave Sir Ronald.

  7. 7.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    October 24, 2018 at 12:18 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: I sit corrected, but the point was the troops were already there, they were sent by HW.

  8. 8.

    Procopius

    October 24, 2018 at 12:40 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: It was Army personnel who were killed in Mogadishu. They went to the wrong block to try to kidnap a warlord. Don’t know whose idea it was to kidnap warlords. The Army (and the Marine Corps) should never be used for that kind of thing. The Army (and the Marine Corps and the Navy and the Air Force) should never have been used in the Global War on Terror™.

  9. 9.

    Jacel

    October 24, 2018 at 12:54 am

    Meanwhile, four US Special Forces troops were killed in Niger, an African country few knew we had troops in. And little has been said of that since.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongo_Tongo_ambush

  10. 10.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    October 24, 2018 at 1:08 am

    @Ladyraxterinok: IOKIYAR

    @Jacel: IOKIYAR

    (lather, rinse, repeat for any other similar occurrences)

  11. 11.

    Mnemosyne

    October 24, 2018 at 1:23 am

    I’ve mentioned this before, but one of my older brothers (the one who died of aggressive lung cancer in 2015) was in the Marines at the time, in the Middle East, and had breakfast at that barracks before returning to the ship. The explosion happened after he was already onboard his ship, but we had no way of knowing that. My mother refused to answer the front door for two weeks because she did not want to see two uniformed Marines standing on our doorstep.

    Eventually, my dad twisted a few arms and managed to get my mom a ship-to-shore call with my brother just to reassure her he was still alive. We’re still not totally sure how he managed it, it was through one of our members of Congress.

    My brother said the other Marines mocked him because his mommy called, but I suspect they were a little envious, too.

  12. 12.

    Villago Delenda Est

    October 24, 2018 at 1:48 am

    @Jacel: I doubt Donald even knew about those operations. He can’t care about lives. Not important to him.

  13. 13.

    Barb 2

    October 24, 2018 at 4:30 am

    After the bombing RayGun ordered an attack on an island in the Caribbean. Seems like the Russians built a runway or something on the island. Innocent people died in that invasion. The military got used by another dimwit GOP Prez.

  14. 14.

    p.a.

    October 24, 2018 at 5:24 am

    Didn’t Ronzo also have a battleship lob shells indiscriminately into Beirut after the barracks attack? Believe that is war crime.

    @Barb 2: Not even Russians IIRC: The dreaded Cubans.

  15. 15.

    John Fremont

    October 24, 2018 at 7:34 am

    @Procopius: Another thing dropped down the memory hole was when the Reagan administration declared a War on Terrorism in 86 or 87 IIRC. Within a few years however the Reagan administration quietly reverted back to using the CIA and FBI and not as many military operations to thwart terrorist activities.

  16. 16.

    Ben Cisco

    October 24, 2018 at 8:04 am

    I spent some time on a ward at Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center with one of the Marines wounded in that attack. Two weeks, that kid was pumped with enough painkillers to drop an elephant. It wasn’t enough. I’ll NEVER forget it, or forgive the B-Movie star for putting him in that spot and then turning his back on him.

  17. 17.

    stan

    October 24, 2018 at 1:08 pm

    After the Beirut bombing, the Marines were withdrawn. Imagine a democratic president doing that – she’d be thrashed by the GOPers as a traitorous wuss.

    And of course the only reason a place called “Lebanon” exists at all is so a small christian minority could rule over a few muslims in an artificially-created zone of the dismembered ottoman empire. There is no other basis for that place.

    The “island in the caribbean’ was Grenada, a tiny place bothering nobody. Nineteen US personnel died there.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8

Recent Comments

  • Soprano2 on Squishable Early Morning Open Thread (Mar 28, 2023 @ 12:11pm)
  • Hildebrand on SunBund Report: Squeaky Wheels Edition (Mar 28, 2023 @ 12:07pm)
  • kindness on SunBund Report: Squeaky Wheels Edition (Mar 28, 2023 @ 12:05pm)
  • Soprano2 on American Has Turned Upside Down (Mar 28, 2023 @ 12:03pm)
  • schrodingers_cat on SunBund Report: Squeaky Wheels Edition (Mar 28, 2023 @ 12:03pm)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
We All Need A Little Kindness
Classified Documents: A Primer
State & Local Elections Discussion

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
TaMara
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Join the Fight!

Join the Fight Signup Form
All Join the Fight Posts

Balloon Juice Events

5/14  The Apocalypse
5/20  Home Away from Home
5/29  We’re Back, Baby
7/21  Merging!

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!