In 1983 I was posted to Cyprus arriving just as the US Marines arrived alongside the French and Italians in order to go and sort out the mess the Israelis had left in Lebanon. I was sent because of my particular skill sets to work as RAF liaison based on board the US Iwo Jima and Guam, both US Marine assault carriers. I had a grandstand view of what followed. The Iranian/Syrian backed Hezbollah was on the rampage fighting the Druze and Israeli backed Christian Phalange groups, the later had only recently had been involved with Israeli approval in going into the refugee camps on a slaughtering rampage. Maggie Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were the heads of state for the UK/US back then and sent a task group along with the French and Italians to sort the mess out.
It was a fascinating three month med cruise and to my eyes an impressive use of massive gun boat diplomacy that got absolutely nowhere. We even had a second world war battleship the USS New Jersey and used it on several occasions to great visible effect but little impact on the problem we were there to solve. I think Beirut was the first modern conflict in some ways. We had factions who hated each other and a region with massive religious and ethnic/cultural divisions that had been cobbled together by the French after the first world war. But without the Turkish Empire, the previous owners, to impose peace. It all unraveled as most of these places eventually do and continue to do! So, used to conflict were the people of the Lebanon by the time we got there that no amount of force would stop the killing. Funnily however Dallas the TV show would stop them. It was transmitted on Middle East TV at 6pm everyday and that was the only time the fighting stopped and folks could shop and get a breather for an hour.. We called it the Dallas hour! Once the show was over the fighting started again.
It is now a much worn story as along the way all the multi national force took severe casualties and the US Marines 299 killed and many wounded in a Hezbollah truck bomb.. Probably one of the first major suicide bomber attacks and proof in my mind that we just added to the casualty list by being there. It would not be the last time I felt that way as the next 30 years of conflict unraveled before my increasingly cynical eyes.
Somalia was the same story of massive force being defeated by asymmetric warfare and still it goes on. I often wonder if we do more harm than good by trying to impose peace by half hearted attempts at force of arms. These religious cultural wars - lets call them Tribal wars - are really civil wars in the hardest terms. Long held blood feuds and cultural fractures are drivers that flare as peoples once oppressed by greater empires release tensions long oppressed in a blood fest.
In Ireland we (the British) tried pretty much everything to get the tottering peace we currently have.. But, it is a truth not well known that the IRA had to be beaten to the table when in the late 80s the gloves came off and the British really went to town on the IRA and caused them significant casualties. So, perhaps Carl von Clausewitz had it right in the 18th Century when he said ironically "A conquer is always a lover of peace"
Given the nature and probable outcome of the problems in the middle east I see no reason why it will not get a hell of lot worse before it burns itself out and the people of that region settle for peace.. For how long depends just a much on the nature and force of the peace imposed as it does on the will of the people to have peace.. Sadly!
I think peace should be a cause best left to those able to impose it and who understand the implications of loosing it. once again Clauserwitz had it right when he said "to secure peace is to prepare for war". It would seem the Russians are doing just this in Syria, as this is written and we shall see how much "peace" those at war in Syria can take before getting the message and settling for an imposed peace.
In conclusion, I think the world lacks the will and the forces to impose peace on most of Africa and the Middle East, but the fall out from it in suffering, refugees and its consequent impact on Europe may change this.....I hope it does...because I can see nothing but pain and suffering unless peace is imposed by force. Given how little these groups actually fear the forces of peace (for want of a better word) I wonder how much horror must be unleashed upon them before peace prevails.
So, why did we fail in Somalia and Lebanon? Same reason as Vietnam really, lack of conviction, wrong tactics and not taking on the opposition with a total focused offensive spirit designed to totally crush them. War can never be waged half way. Its either total or fails.
Sad but history proves it.
