Siege Mentality in Beirut: An Historical Analogy between the British in Palestine and the Americans in Lebanon

摘要

The problem confronting the U.S. Marines presently stationed in Lebanon is similar to the one which the British Army faced in Palestine more than thirty years ago. In 1947, British troops, like their later day Marine counterparts, were deployed in urban areas where they were subjected to hit-and-run attacks by a determined and anonymous (though not, as is the case in Lebanon, suicidal), adversary. The British attempted to prevent further assaults by withdrawing behind allegedly impregnable barbed-wire fortifications, under the erroneous belief that these security zones could be successfully defended. As events subsequently demonstrated, they were wrong. But, more importantly, it appears today that the Americans may be repeating some of the same mistakes made by the British back then. That is, in the aftermath of the bombing of the Marine headquarters at Beirut International Airport last month, the belief seems to exist in some political and military circles that more barbed wire, additional earthen barriers, and the lengthening of camp perimeters will prove sufficient to thwart any new assault by Muslim terrorists on the Marines.