Angry Marines, firm Israelis
The tension that flared over the Middle East last week involved not the usual combatants, Arabs and Jews, but two forces that are supposed to be friendly: the U.S. Marine Corps and the Israeli Defense Forces. In a scathing letter to Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, which was later released by the Pentagon, U.S. Marine Commandant General Robert Barrow complained that Israeli forces in Lebanon have consistently "harassed, endangered and degraded" U.S. troops. He asserted that the Israelis "persist in creating serious incidents" and suggested that these episodes had...