(As appeared in the Jerusalem Post)

Those seeking to identify a date for the commencement of the pitiless Muslim extremist campaign against America, should forget September 11, 2001. There is a far better candidate for that distinction. October 23, 1983 stands as America's first post-World War II "day of infamy."

That was the morning Hizbullah guerrillas ended the lives of 241 marines and more than 70 French soldiers at the Beirut barracks of the multinational peacekeeping forces in Beirut. The event claims its mark on history on two counts.

It was the first time a Muslim extremist group had caused mass casualties against a US target. It was also the first time since World War II that a US military force had failed to seek retribution for a mass attack against American servicemen. Acting under a cautious warning from secretary of defense Caspar Weinberger, the Reagan administration rejected retaliation against Hizbullah so as not to threaten a shaky relationship with Saudi Arabia. Instead, American forces were quickly recalled from Lebanon.

The failure to launch any significant reprisal against this slaughter of American peacekeepers, coupled with the hasty retreat, was to have catastrophic repercussions. Emboldened by its success, Hizbullah's power and prestige in southern Lebanon was greatly enhanced. In the next five years it consolidated its political control over southern Lebanon and took pride in the harassment of the Israeli forces lodged in the 23-km security zone the Israelis had created following their 1982 invasion.

From 1983 through 1992 the Israelis suffered 49 suicide attacks by Hizbullah guerrillas. Israel's hasty withdrawal in May 2000, mimicking the earlier US retreat, only confirmed what many Muslim extremists had concluded 17 years earlier: Neither the Israeli nor American military machines had the stomach for mass losses or for combating the threat of suicide bombing.

For the past 20 years Hizbullah, strengthened by support from the Iranian mullahs and given freedom of movement by the nominal rulers of Lebanon in Syria, became the virtual government of southern Lebanon. In doing so, it began the development of an international network of financiers and fund-raising operations that created a steady flow of both arms and cash into southern Lebanon.

Quietly Hizbullah became the model and inspiration for all extremist Muslim factions Sunni and Shi'ite alike.

It should therefore come as little surprise that investigations into the Paradise Hotel bombing and the attack on the Arkia plane in Mombasa are pointing to the likelihood of collusion between Hizbullah and al-Qaida.

IN FACT, a clear pattern is emerging that suggests Hizbullah is actively cooperating with al-Qaida. Western intelligence has now revealed a high level of cooperation between Osama bin Laden and Imad Muganiyeh, the Hizbullah terrorist who masterminded some of Hizbullah's most spectacular atrocities and kidnappings in Lebanon. Reports have Muganiyeh first meeting with bin Laden as early as 1995 and those meetings have continued regularly ever since.

More than this, since al-Qaida fled Afghanistan at the end of last year, the Sunday Telegraph reports, between 80 and 100 al-Qaida fighters were provided with false passports by Hizbullah before being relocated to southern Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The same report acknowledges that Hizbullah, working hand in hand with al-Qaida, has set up cells in the Far East - including in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore. It is well known that Hizbullah has operated in Gaza and the West Bank for years, but the recent revelation by the Shin Bet - that al-Qaida has now also joined them there - is chilling evidence of a new level of cooperation previously unsuspected.

Therefore in a post-Saddam world, bringing down Hizbullah, whose headquarters and whereabouts are no secret, should become the American military's No. 1 priority. Operating in conjunction with the IDF, the Hizbullah operation in Southern Lebanon must be brought to its knees, its operatives throughout the world identified and eliminated, and its financial network dismantled. Syria and Iran must be threatened with reprisals for their continued financial and strategic support of Hizbullah, and Saudi Arabia should be made to pay the diplomatic price for its two-faced attitude to the war on terror.

Pursuing al-Qaida may well slake a justified American thirst for revenge. But eliminating that organization's progenitor and model may, in the meantime, be just as effective in conveying a message to the purveyors of terror that the US government failed, so critically, to deliver 19 years ago.

Avi Davis is senior fellow of the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies in Los Angeles.

© Copyright 1997-2004 United States Committee For A Free Lebanon. All rights reserved.

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