U.S. A PRISONER OF ITS OWN POWER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706170004-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 23, 2012
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: June 30, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706170004-0 STAT
1
A" TIN F APPEARED -'"
ON PAG
U. S. a prisoner
of its own power
Even before we get our hostages back, Ameri-
cans are already talking about What revenge we
are going to take on the people who grabbed
them.
In one sense, our revenge could be unlimited.
We have atomic weapons. We have chemical
weapons and nerve gas and bombs that release
diseases you don't want even to think about.
Once we have our hostages safely back, we
could drop those weapons on Lebanon. And we
could drop them on Syria and Iran for good
measure.
But, in another sense, we are prisoners of our
own power.
We aren't going to be dropping nuclear bombs
anywhere. And we are not going to be using any
of the other exotic arrows in our quiver.
If we do take action, it is going to be very
conventional and very limited. World opinion
would not allow us to do anything else.
Ironically, whatever action we do take is
going to put us in the position that Israel has
been in for years.
Israel responded to terrorist attacks with
counterattacks of its own. If the attack came
from Jordan, no matter whether the govern-
ment of Jordan approved it, Jordan was the
target of the Israeli attack.
The policy worked. Jordan, Syria and Egypt
began clamping down on terrorist raids in order
to avoid Israeli reprisals.
But Lebanon was different. The government
of Lebanon does not exercise any real control
over that country.
And the Israeli solution, an invasion of
Lebanon, proved more costly than it was worth.
America is now faced with the same dilem-
ma. Sure, we could invade Lebanon. But we
would find ourselves in the same quicksand the
Israelis were sucked into.
Blockade Beirut harbor. We could do that.
And we may.
Our oil-rich allies in the Mideast such as Saudi
Arabia, who get their goods through Beirut,
would howl, however. And our Western allies
and Japan, who supply those goods, would howl
too. But we could stand up to that.
It would be swift, dramatic action. But would
it really punish the terrorists? They can get
whatever weapons they need overland through
Syria.
NIC.A n TRIRIINF_
30 June 1985
We could close Beirut airport. It is closed
much of the time anyway.
But to make sure future hijackers could not
use it as a landing site, we would probably have
to bomb the runways at regular intervals. And
even that might not work.
Keep in mind that the current hijackers held a
gun to the TWA pilot's head and ordered him to
land even if trucks were blocking the runway.
Future hijackers might order a landing even
if the runways were full pf bomb craters.
There are other forms -of revenge we could
take. Assassination, at first glance, has a cer-
tain appealing simplicity, to it.
The Kenned ad
wie- -assassination to F',irde~l =Castor end,
accused of assassinations or arranging
ere are proems with this, however, aside
from the obvious violation of law. The U.S.
would have to find a clear target, a clear leader
of the terrorists to assassinate. And that is not
easy.
There is another problem. We are, after all,
supposed to be the good guys. And assassination
just doesn't seem very American.
We could bomb various suspected Shiite
camps, and we might actually do that. This will
surely kill some innocent civilians, however.
Killing civilians will not make the U.S. look
very good, no matter how good our motivation.
When Israel bombed military targets and killed
nearby civilians, it was widely criticized for it in
this country and elsewhere.
Then there is the biggest problem of all with
our revenge: Aside from the TWA hostages,
there are seven other kidnaped Americans
somewhere in Lebanon.
If we get the TWA hostages back without
getting the others back, can we really take
reprisals without putting the lives of those seven
at risk?
And, even if we get all the hostages back,
there are still many Americans living in Beirut,
all possible kidnaping targets. And there are
still millions of Americans flying around the
world, all possible hijacking targets.
Our current anger is understandable. We were
angry when our hostages were held for 444 days
in Tehran. But even though many people talked
about it at the time, we didn't bomb that city
into dust after we got our hostages back.
Are we helpless to take revenge? No, not
entirely. We might take some limited action.
But the good guys do bear a certain burden.
The good guys care about killing the innocent.
They care about what happens to their own
citizens. They care about decency and law.
Sure, we could flex our muscles and feel more
macho if we didn't care about those things.
But then how could you tell the good guys and
the bad guys apart?
? 1985 Los An9Mw nmes syndcw
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706170004-0