It is true that there were multiple terrorist groups. And it is true that the group claiming responsibility for the bombings (Islamic Jihad) was a radical Islamist organization like al-Qaeda. I didn't want to give a complete history lesson; I wanted to show how things were more complicated than the First to Fight story let on.

It just bothers me how the story insinuates that all of Lebanon's problems are caused by Islamist terrorists. It's the same kind of thing the Bush administration does to insinuate that Saddam cooperated with al-Qaeda to attack the U.S. on 9/11, when it's just not true.

I admit the "IMG = propaganda" claim is overstated. But if the media were in the habit of a taking the government's pronouncements with a skeptical grain of salt, rather than just repeating those pronouncements verbatim, the mess we're in with Iraq might have been avoided.

This article copied what was on the First To Fight website.

Also, you don't seem to have received a complete history lesson for that particular time and place. There were **multiple** terror factions operating in and around the Beirut area at the time; the PLO being just one of them.

I can't help but point out that IMG is (perhaps unwittingly) serving as a tool for U. S. Military propaganda.

The background story in IMG's feature on Close Combat: First to Fight doesn't really tell the whole story about Lebanon. It's not quite true that Lebanon in 1983 had "stateless terrorists hid[ing] and fight[ing] among the civilian populace like cancer destroying an otherwise healthy body". In this case the presumed terrorists were the Palestinian Liberation Organization, who were fighting to regain their land (and state) from Israel. They did fight and hide among the civilian population, though. Lebanon was NOT otherwise healthy: it was 8 years into a civil war between Lebanese Christians and Lebanese Muslims. On top of all that, Lebanon had been invaded by Israel, who was defending itself from attacks by the PLO, and killing a lot of civilians in the process. Lebanese government barely even existed at this time.

So: things are a lot more complicated than the U. S. Military would have you believe. Just look up "History of Lebanon" in an encyclopedia or something.

Does IMG ever double-check this kind of stuff?