What is the truth about the Beirut barracks bombings on October 23, 1983?

The Iranians do not seem to me to have given Donald Trump any reason let alone justification for his attack last year or this year.

America has wanted to overthrow the Iranian Islamic republic since the Shah was overthrown and for no clear reason that I can see except desire to dominate the Middle East and take revenge for the seizure by Iranian students of the American diplomats in 1979. (In fact they were not diplomats but working for the CIA and presumably working to undermine the new government). 


But Americans often mention their 220 marines, 18 sailors, and 3 soldiers on a peacekeeping mission who were killed in the Beirut barracks bombing, they claim by Hezbollah in 1983 under direction of Iranian Intelligence. 

When I come across this on two occasions I looked up the account of the incident in John Ghazvinian's magisterial book America and Iran: A History, 1720 to the Present – I can't recommend it enough-  and am writing this as an aide memoire.

The bombing was in retaliation for the US 6th Fleet shelling Shia villages and killing innocent villagers. 

Hezbollah and Iran always denied responsibility, while Islamic Jihad admitted responsibility. Casper Weinberger always said to the end of his life that it wasn't clear who was behind it and said this was why the US did not retaliate against Iran or Syria.

The US troops were in Lebanon as peacekeepers but also very much to support the Israeli invaders and pro Israeli Christian-led government. It seems to me that they had become combatants when they shelled the villages.

This is Max Blumenthal's view, that this was not the start of Muslim terrorism but part of the civil war in which Reagan had allowed US forces to become embroiled.

The families of the victims later sued Iran in a civil lawsuit and their lawyer uncovered, according to Wikipedia: 

'a U.S. National Security Agency intercept of a message sent from Iranian intelligence headquarters in Tehran to Hojjat ol-eslam Ali-Akbar Mohtashemi, the Iranian ambassador in Damascus. As it was paraphrased by presiding U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth, "The message directed the Iranian ambassador to contact Hussein Musawi, the leader of the terrorist group Islamic Amal, and to instruct him ... 'to take a spectacular action against the United States Marines"'. 

'Musawi's Islamic Amal was a breakaway faction of the Amal Movement and an autonomous part of embryonic Hezbollah. According to Muhammad Sahimi, high-ranking US officials had a different interpretation from that intercept, which stopped them from ordering a revengeful attack against Iran.'

The US does not seem to have had any role in inciting Saddam to invade Iran in 1980 but supported Iraq. 250,000 to 500,000 Iranians were killed in that unprovoked war. Iran had no reason to love the US.

In 1982 Hezbollah came into existence with Iranian help to defend Lebanon against the invasion by Israel, which Israel launched to expel the PLO from Lebanon. 

And so it goes. The truth is rarely pure and never simple. 

A piece of advice: don't rely on AI to research topics like this. It is very biassed in favour of the Americann official line. Instead use common sense.