Cheney and the White House have been making this point for some time now, that Ronald Reagan's withdrawal of US troops from Beirut in 1983 emboldened Al Qaeda.
For some reason, the media has been loathe to report on it. Oh sure, they mention Cheney's quotes, and list Beirut as one of two US withdrawals that emboldened Al Qaeda, but the media never seems to catch the fact that the Beirut withdrawal was Reagan's doing. That Cheney is saying flat out that Ronald Reagan's policies emboldened Al Qaeda. (Wonder how Nancy feels about that.)
To wit, from today's Washington Post:
"If we follow Congressman Murtha's advice and withdraw from Iraq the same way we withdrew from Beirut in 1983 and Somalia in 1993, all we will do is validate the al-Qaeda strategy and invite even more terrorist attacks," Cheney said in Milwaukee.Note the Beirut reference. Also note the Somalia reference. Who got us into the mess in Somalia? President George H. W. Bush and his Defense Secretary, Dick Cheney. So Cheney is blaming Reagan and Bush, Sr., and himself for "inviting more terrorist attacks" against Americans.
Now do you think that's a story?
