23 October - A sad day in American Military History

[BOSSHOG]

on this day in 1983, a suicide truck bombing in Beirut, Lebanon killed 241 U. S. Marines and Sailors and a near simultaneous attack on French Forces killed 58 paratroopers.

[trotsky]

1. Oh yeah, and our glorious leader at the time responded by...

"cutting and running" from Lebanon, and then invading Grenada.

[HereSince1628]

3. And for the same reason...to re-establish out "street-cred"

Once punked a bully needs an easy target to re-establish fear among those he dominates.

[underpants]

2. |

[NewYorkerfromMass]

4. 1st large scale suicide attack

I believe this was the 1st high profile suicide attack on an American target by a jihadist, 18 years before 9/11.
But who could have imagined they would have used planes as weapons?

[razors edge]

5. 39 days latter with proof of Iranian involvement

in the bombing from the NSA, Rayguns started trading weapons for hostages to them.