Blowback

Abu Muqawama has a post on the upcoming 25th anniversary of the bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon. It points out the tremendous disconnect between how Americans see ourselves and our foreign policies and the realities on the ground. In Lebanon we saw ourselves as neutral peacekeepers. In reality, we took sides in a multi-part civil war and were seen as neither neutral nor peacekeepers by the people in Beirut, including the Marine commander on the ground there.