Remarks by U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly 30th Anniversary of the U.S. Embassy, Beirut Bombing
April 18, 2013
We are here today to remember our colleagues who were taken from us 30 years ago today, in a terrible bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Ain el-Mreisseh. A huge bomb exploded in front of the embassy and sheared off a large part of the building. 52 staff of the U.S. mission died that day; many others were wounded. For those who lost their lives, the story was finished. For those who survived, years of loss and grief and trauma and hardship and recovery followed. Some of you here today are among those survivors. I remember our destroyed embassy often: when I pass the site along the Corniche or sometimes when I enter our compound here through the barriers designed to defend against another truck bombing, I remember those whom we lost. I know the survivors and the families of the victims remember that awful day every day and they always will.
The bombing of Embassy Beirut in 1983 opened a new chapter in America's history in the Middle East. The first of what would be three attacks on Americans, and Lebanese colleagues in Beirut in 17 months, it was a bloody rite of passage. Shown on televisions and splayed across newspapers throughout the world, the April, 1983 bombing taught Americans that peaceful intentions were not enough to protect us from those who would use terror to achieve their aims in the Middle East. It taught us the stakes of involvement in this region.
For Lebanese, these dangers were nothing new. Eight years into your own war at that time, senseless killing and random destruction were all too familiar. The Americans and Lebanese working in Embassy Beirut in 1983 were striving to return stability to Lebanon and the region. The saying goes, "They came in peace." And so they did. The very presence of the embassy in the midst of the war underway in Lebanon was an assertion of hope – that Lebanon would soon return to normal life. Unfortunately, many more years were to pass before Lebanon achieved a degree of stability. Even today, Lebanon's normalcy is a fragile thing that requires constant attention. The eruption of civil war in Syria reminds us here just how quickly the failure to respect democratic institutions and the use of terrorist attacks to prevent change can plunge any country into chaos and violence.
As was the case in Lebanon in 1983 and is the situation in Syria in 2013, violence and destruction come as the result when mechanisms for bringing about change, addressing grievances, alleviating tensions, and reducing frustrations have all failed. Once the cycle begins, it is difficult to break. Each act of violence breeds a violent response. A cult of victimization grows on both sides, each side finding justification for its bloody revenge in the brutal act of the other.
Violence between armies or militias or armed groups is terrible but in human history it has become accepted. Violence against unarmed civilians, however, has never been morally acceptable. The Americans and Lebanese and others killed in 1983 came in peace, but they were met with violence. They were victims of terrorism.
Terrorist groups always claim a high-minded ideology and then commit the most inhuman acts in its defense. Terrorist groups may claim the moral high ground but they exploit poverty, desperation, fear, immaturity, and alienation. They claim to be serving lofty goals, even heavenly objectives, but they do so by feeding in the gutters of drug-dealing and money-laundering. Terrorist groups assassinate their political enemies to eliminate competition and they engage in violent, destructive acts to intimidate people into obedience because they know they cannot succeed through peaceful persuasion. Terrorist groups are internal dictatorships seeking to impose external dictatorships over society. They claim they seek justice but in fact they fear the freedoms fundamental to a just society. They reject freedom of expression or conscience; they reject accountability; they do not brook criticism.
In 1983, the staff of Embassy Beirut came in peace but a terrorist group chose them as its target and killed 52 people. But ultimately the terrorists failed. Because Embassy Beirut re-established itself here, on this compound, and went back to work. And when terrorists chose to attack us again in 1984, they found it was harder to kill us. We went back to work again and we have worked hard ever since, day in, day out. We come in peace every day and we always will. In the end, the terrorists always fail.
1983 and 1984 were very hard years for us. We suffered many losses. And the losses haven't stopped. Just last week, a young American Foreign Service Officer, Anne Smedinghoff, died in Afghanistan along with equally young soldiers. In September of last year, Ambassador Chris Stevens along with his colleagues Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods, and Glen Doherty died horribly in Benghazi. But just as we continue our work here in Lebanon, our colleagues will continue in Afghanistan and Libya and around the world. The work we do is too important to allow mere terrorists to stop us.
I would like to quote part of a poem by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats:
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
We cannot bring back those whom we lost in 1983 and 1984. But we can honor their memories and the memories all those who have fallen to terrorism by ensuring we do not lack conviction. We must not allow the terrorists' "passionate intensity" or their willingness to use violence against men, women, and children to intimidate us. We will fight back by upholding the standards of a civilized society, by remaining true to our moral compass; we will demonstrate the hollowness of the terrorists' claims to virtue by revealing their true nature; we will oppose their attempts to impose tyranny by insisting on elections and free expression and accountability and justice. We will uphold the U.S. commitment to a sovereign, independent, and stable Lebanon. Because in a truly sovereign Lebanon, in a truly independent Lebanon, in a truly stable Lebanon, the terrorists will not thrive. The terrorists will not survive.
And we will do that just by coming to work each day. Because we are Embassy Beirut and that is what we do.
Thank you.
We are here today to remember our colleagues who were taken from us 30 years ago today, in a terrible bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Ain el-Mreisseh. A huge bomb exploded in front of the embassy and sheared off a large part of the building. 52 staff of the U.S. mission died that day; many others were wounded. For those who lost their lives, the story was finished. For those who survived, years of loss and grief and trauma and hardship and recovery followed. Some of you here today are among those survivors. I remember our destroyed embassy often: when I pass the site along the Corniche or sometimes when I enter our compound here through the barriers designed to defend against another truck bombing, I remember those whom we lost. I know the survivors and the families of the victims remember that awful day every day and they always will.
The bombing of Embassy Beirut in 1983 opened a new chapter in America's history in the Middle East. The first of what would be three attacks on Americans, and Lebanese colleagues in Beirut in 17 months, it was a bloody rite of passage. Shown on televisions and splayed across newspapers throughout the world, the April, 1983 bombing taught Americans that peaceful intentions were not enough to protect us from those who would use terror to achieve their aims in the Middle East. It taught us the stakes of involvement in this region.
For Lebanese, these dangers were nothing new. Eight years into your own war at that time, senseless killing and random destruction were all too familiar. The Americans and Lebanese working in Embassy Beirut in 1983 were striving to return stability to Lebanon and the region. The saying goes, "They came in peace." And so they did. The very presence of the embassy in the midst of the war underway in Lebanon was an assertion of hope – that Lebanon would soon return to normal life. Unfortunately, many more years were to pass before Lebanon achieved a degree of stability. Even today, Lebanon's normalcy is a fragile thing that requires constant attention. The eruption of civil war in Syria reminds us here just how quickly the failure to respect democratic institutions and the use of terrorist attacks to prevent change can plunge any country into chaos and violence.
As was the case in Lebanon in 1983 and is the situation in Syria in 2013, violence and destruction come as the result when mechanisms for bringing about change, addressing grievances, alleviating tensions, and reducing frustrations have all failed. Once the cycle begins, it is difficult to break. Each act of violence breeds a violent response. A cult of victimization grows on both sides, each side finding justification for its bloody revenge in the brutal act of the other.
Violence between armies or militias or armed groups is terrible but in human history it has become accepted. Violence against unarmed civilians, however, has never been morally acceptable. The Americans and Lebanese and others killed in 1983 came in peace, but they were met with violence. They were victims of terrorism.
Terrorist groups always claim a high-minded ideology and then commit the most inhuman acts in its defense. Terrorist groups may claim the moral high ground but they exploit poverty, desperation, fear, immaturity, and alienation. They claim to be serving lofty goals, even heavenly objectives, but they do so by feeding in the gutters of drug-dealing and money-laundering. Terrorist groups assassinate their political enemies to eliminate competition and they engage in violent, destructive acts to intimidate people into obedience because they know they cannot succeed through peaceful persuasion. Terrorist groups are internal dictatorships seeking to impose external dictatorships over society. They claim they seek justice but in fact they fear the freedoms fundamental to a just society. They reject freedom of expression or conscience; they reject accountability; they do not brook criticism.
In 1983, the staff of Embassy Beirut came in peace but a terrorist group chose them as its target and killed 52 people. But ultimately the terrorists failed. Because Embassy Beirut re-established itself here, on this compound, and went back to work. And when terrorists chose to attack us again in 1984, they found it was harder to kill us. We went back to work again and we have worked hard ever since, day in, day out. We come in peace every day and we always will. In the end, the terrorists always fail.
1983 and 1984 were very hard years for us. We suffered many losses. And the losses haven't stopped. Just last week, a young American Foreign Service Officer, Anne Smedinghoff, died in Afghanistan along with equally young soldiers. In September of last year, Ambassador Chris Stevens along with his colleagues Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods, and Glen Doherty died horribly in Benghazi. But just as we continue our work here in Lebanon, our colleagues will continue in Afghanistan and Libya and around the world. The work we do is too important to allow mere terrorists to stop us.
I would like to quote part of a poem by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats:
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
We cannot bring back those whom we lost in 1983 and 1984. But we can honor their memories and the memories all those who have fallen to terrorism by ensuring we do not lack conviction. We must not allow the terrorists' "passionate intensity" or their willingness to use violence against men, women, and children to intimidate us. We will fight back by upholding the standards of a civilized society, by remaining true to our moral compass; we will demonstrate the hollowness of the terrorists' claims to virtue by revealing their true nature; we will oppose their attempts to impose tyranny by insisting on elections and free expression and accountability and justice. We will uphold the U.S. commitment to a sovereign, independent, and stable Lebanon. Because in a truly sovereign Lebanon, in a truly independent Lebanon, in a truly stable Lebanon, the terrorists will not thrive. The terrorists will not survive.
And we will do that just by coming to work each day. Because we are Embassy Beirut and that is what we do.
Thank you.
posted by DELTA BLOG at 6:48 PM
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