Reagan’s Rules for Military Action pt.3

The Reagan administration, and the “international community” right along with it, had grossly underestimated the situation in Beirut. Reagan would later write of his mistake a recognition that only really began to sink in with Americans in the aftermath of 9/11:

“…the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics forced us to rethink our policy…How do you deal with a people driven by such a religious zeal that they are willing to sacrifice their lives in order to kill an enemy simply because he doesn’t worship the same God they do? People who believe that if they do that, they’ll go instantly to heaven?”

Some weeks after the bombing of Beirut, Reagan’s Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger gave Reagan a Pentagon report not yet public that placed the blame for the Beirut massacre on “negligence by the marines’ commanding officers in Beirut.” 

Reagan wouldn't hear of it. He told Weinberger that he, the president, would take full responsibility for the disaster. Said he: “I was the one who sent them there.”

If Reagan was the man who sent the Marines to Lebanon, he was also now to be the man who decided he would be the man to remove them. To get out. He knew that this was a bad situation. Doing this would send a signal of weakness to some (and indeed, years later Osama Bin Laden said just that.) But Reagan had no intention of committing Americans to a full-scale war in the Middle East. And the MFN peacekeeping operation with the British, French and Italians had failed abysmally. So….he pulled out the troops. And home they came.

Which prompted Reagan to eventually write out a set of four principles. Four principles, he would write in his memoirs, that were specifically designed “to guide America in the application of military force abroad, and I would recommend it to future presidents.” 

Here they are:

Reagan Rule 1: The United States should not commit its forces to military actions overseas unless the cause is vital to our national interest.

Reagan Rule 2: If the decision is made to commit our forces to combat abroad, it must be done with the clear intent and support to win. It should not be a halfway or tentative commitment, and there must be clearly defined and realistic objectives.

Reagan Rule 3: Before we commit our troops to combat, there must be reasonable assurance that the cause we are fighting for and the actions we take will have the support of the American people and Congress. (We felt that the Vietnam War had turned into such a tragedy because military action had been undertaken without sufficient assurances that the American people were behind it.)

Reagan Rule 4: Even after all these other tests are met, our troops should be committed to combat only as a last resort, when no other choice is available.

Now.

As of this moment, President Obama is confronted — in precisely the same area of the world that bedeviled Reagan — with the use of chemical weapons in Syria. He is even dealing with exactly the problem Reagan had — the Syrians now as then are backed by the Russians. 

One can spend much time and space — and undoubtedly that time and space will be spent — discussing how in the world we have gotten to this point. 

Be that as it may: here we are. So as America and the world await the return of Congress on September 9, let’s employ Reagan’s Rules to today’s situation.