To Whom It May Concern:

Early on the Sunday morning of October 23, 1983, I awoke to the phone ringing. It was my father calling to tell me that our worst nightmare had been realized. The Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon had been blown up by a suicide terrorist bomber. It was crushing news and I could feel the enormous panic in my father's voice. He was absolutely devastated. We all were. How could it be? How could it happen? How many dead? Where was our Jim? We searched frantically during the next weeks, looking at every photograph, watching every news item trying to catch a glimpse of our beloved son, brother, and friend. Watching in horror as the young Marines who survived sifted frantically through the wreckage. The help that would be theirs, a fleet of

My father was calling to tell me our worst nightmare had been realized.

By the time my brother's remains were brought home, all the fanfare, all the speeches, all the ceremonies and all the grief of the nation had been nearly put to rest by the political machine in Washington that washes all the dirty happenings in the world and presents us with the new, cleaner version of the truth. How could we have been so naive? How could we have been so foolish? Whom do we blame? Our Marines were sent to Lebanon as Peacekeepers and now they were pulling out in disgrace under chaotic circumstances. They had been put in a situation without a clear objective and told to be a "presence" in the region but not to interfere. The results were disastrous.

That was seventeen years ago. My father is gone now. He lived thirteen years without his precious youngest son. He spent those thirteen years trying desperately to keep the memory of Jim and his fellow-Marines who shared a horrific moment in history alive by participating in remembrance ceremonies sponsored by No Greater Love, a humanitarian organization dedicated to remembering those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country and serving as the familiy liaison to other families of victims of terrorism.

Terrorism. Our family and the families of all the Marines who died in Beirut know about terrorism. We know how unpredictable and indiscriminate it can be. How devastating and cruel. We know the never-ending grief. We knew how close terrorism was before Oklahoma City or the World Trade Center. We know the politics that fuel it. Politics killed my brother and his fellow-Marines in Beirut on that quiet Sunday morning at dawn. Misguided politics. Politics and politicians who think that signing meaningless agreements and securing their place in history is more important than the life of one young Marine. Politics then and politics now...nothing has changed in seventeen years.

The negotiations between Syria and Israel in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, hosted by the Clinton administration have faltered and now I ask myself a question...a question that has been asked before in history...peace at what price?

Can the Clinton administration actually think that even if Assad of Syria signs this agreement, that he will keep his word? This is the same Assad responsible for the terrorist attack against the Marines in Beirut that killed my brother and 240 others, as well as most if not all of the terrorist activity in Lebanon and Israel and all over the world. Syria's Assad has his fingerprints all over the Pan Am 103 terrorist bombing.

Is President Clinton so eager for a peace agreement that won't be worth the paper it's printed on, that he would risk sending American troops as Peacekeepers and sending hundreds of millions of dollars into the region to secure his contrived legacy? Is President Clinton willing to shake the hand of a man who has the blood of American Marines and innocent men, women and children on his hands? Assad will stab him in the back while smiling to his face. How can President Clinton be so naive and so foolish? Will his hollow victory be another diversion from the truth that with Assad, there will never be peace--at any price? We are the naive and foolish ones if we allow it to happen.

My family and I have lived with terrorism for seventeen years. Many times we have felt that our sacrifice has been forgotten and we have been left to grieve silently in our own hearts. And each time another terrorist attack claims a life, our hearts break again and we feel the loss which will last an eternity. My heart goes out to all who live with the threat of terrorism as a daily reminder of the uncertainty of life, especially the people of Israel who have lived with terrorism for more than fifty years.

I do not believe that sending American troops to the Golan Heights or sending millions of dollars to the terrorist state of Syria and ultimately to the coffers of

[(Continued on p.5)]

Outpost               - 4 -               February 2000