Mission Impossible

A Pentagon report raises questions about keeping the Marines in Lebanon

The report, prepared by a five-man commission appointed by Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, had been ready for nearly a week.

But the date set for its public release kept slipping. Press briefings were promised, then canceled. Finally, with no advance notice, President Reagan stepped into a largely empty White House briefing room and stole some of the report's expected thunder. With his flak for drama, Reagan announced, "If there is to be blame, it properly rests here in this office and with this President. I accept responsibility for the bad as well as the good."

Reagan's declaration was meant to absolve officers in the operational chain of command who had been criticized for failing to take adequate precautions before a truck bomb killed 241 U.S. servicemen last Oct. 23. The President also used his constitutional power as Commander in Chief of the armed forces to head off courts-martial for the officers. Said he:

"The local commanders on the ground... have already suffered quite enough."

On one level, Reagan's motives were plainly compassionate. "He felt that the process of trying to lay blame on individuals was demeaning to those who died and unnecessarily painful for the families," explained a White House aide. "He did not wish to see the process dragged out." Beyond that, Reagan has high regard for the military and apparently acted, in his view, to protect it.

At the same time, however, the White House knew that there were political advantages in diverting attention from the substance of the highly critical report.

"We were afraid that the Pentagon would get out front and dump on the mission," said another presidential adviser, referring to anticipated criticism by the military of the Marines' role in Lebanon. Nor did the political strategists relish the prospect of a series of attention-getting disciplinary hearings in an election year.

Yet the political gains may have been only temporary. Despite Reagan's mea culpa, the findings of the commission, which was chaired by retired Navy Admiral Robert L. J. Long,— will not be easily shrugged off. In effect, the report concluded that the Marines are engaged in a Mission Impossible. On one hand, they are unable to pose as neutral peace-keepers because the U.S. has sided militarily with the rickety central government of Amin Gemayel. On the other, they are too few in number (1,800) and too restricted in their operations (never firing unless fired upon) to be much of a military threat to the antigovernment factions.

Ranging somewhat fearlessly into political rather than strictly military matters, the report implicitly challenged the Administration's decision to gamble so heavily on the Gemayel government. Noting that both President Gemayel and General Ibrahim Tannous, commander of the Lebanese armed forces, are Maronite Christians hated by other religious factions, the commission declared, "Whatever their true intentions may be concerning the future of Lebanon, they are caught in the same tangled web of distrust, misunderstanding, malevolence, conspiracy and betrayal that has brought Lebanon to political bankruptcy and ruin."