Veckans citat: HMS Gävle för freden i Libanon

One Response to “Veckans citat: HMS Gävle för freden i Libanon”

1. unmo300 on May 15th, 2008 04:29:10

   Inte foersta gaangen US Navy hjaelper Libanon.

   From Wikipedia
   Lebanese Civil War (1983–1984)
   In 1983, a bloody civil war was raging in Lebanon. In an effort to stop the violence in the region a Multinational Force comprised largely of U.S. and French armed service members was created and sent to the region to attempt a restoration of order. As part of the multinational force the United States mobilized an expeditionary force composed of members of the United States Marine Corps and elements of the United States Sixth Fleet which operated out of the Mediterranean Sea.[23]

   At the time the Multinational Force had arrived the Lebanese Civil War had shifted to the Chouf Mountains in what would later be termed the “Mountain War.” In August 1983, Israel withdrew its Defense Forces from the Chouf District (southeast of Beirut), thus removing the buffer between the Druze and the Christian militias and triggering another round of brutal fighting. On 16 September 1983 Druze forces massed on the threshold of Suk El Gharb, a village defended by the Lebanese Army.[24] Suk El Gharb was a village with strategic importance: the militias coming up from the south had to traverse Suk El Gharb to get to the Beirut-Aley road. Moreover, Suk El Gharb controlled a ridge that overlooked Baabda, Yarze, which was the location of the Ministry of Defence, and East Beirut. From that ridge, the Militia gunners could shoot directly downhill at those locations with artillery.[24]

   New Jersey opens fire on an enemy position off the coast of Beirut 9 January 1984.As the militias invaded and the Lebanese forced began to lose ground Michel Aoun, the commander of the Lebanese 8th Mechanised Infantry Battalion defending the town, pleaded with United States to aid with the defense of the town.[24] Aoun cited Syrian involvement with the attacking militias as justification for U.S. aid in the defense of Suk El Gharb. At first the U.S. forces refused to get involved, citing their role as peacekeepers in the region; however, when informed that Suk El Gharb would likely be overrun if something was not done the United States agreed to aid with the defense of the town. USS Virginia (CGN-38), USS John Rodgers (DD-983), USS Bowen, and USS Radford fired 338 rounds from their five inch (127 mm) guns in support of Lebanese Army forces defending Suk El Gharb. The offshore artillery support helped the Lebanese Army hold the town until a cease-fire was declared on 25 September, the same day on which New Jersey joined the group.[24]

   On November 28 — after October 23, 1983 Beirut barracks bombing — the U.S. government announced that New Jersey would be retained off Beirut although her crew would be rotated. On 14 December, New Jersey fired 11 projectiles from her 16 inch (406 mm) guns at hostile positions inland of Beirut. These were the first 16 inch (406 mm) shells fired for effect anywhere in the world since New Jersey ended her time on the gunline in Vietnam in 1969.[25]

   On 8 February 1984, New Jersey fired almost 300 shells at Druze and Syrian positions in the Bekaa valley east of Beirut. Some 30 of these massive projectiles rained down on a Syrian command post, killing the general commanding Syrian forces in Lebanon and several other senior officers. This was the heaviest shore bombardment since the Korean War.[25]

   Although New Jersey performed her job expertly during the intervention in Lebanon some have criticized the decision to have New Jersey shell Druze and Syrian forces. Members of this camp allege that this action forced a shift in the previously neutral U.S. forces by convincing local Lebanese Muslims that the United States had taken the Christian side;[26] New Jersey’s shells had killed a number of Muslim civilians living in the targeted area.[27] In his memoir, General Colin Powell (at the time an assistant to Caspar Weinberger) noted that “When the shells started falling on the Shiites, they assumed the American ‘referee’ had taken sides.”[28][29]

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