I don't recall anybody's head rolling for these incidents, even though a total of 304 Americans were killed.
In April 1983, the U.S. embassy in Beirut was struck by a 400-pound suicide truck bomb, which killed 63 people, including 17 Americans, and wiped out the CIA's Middle East bureau.
On Oct. 23, 1983, terrorists hijacked a water delivery truck on its way to the Beirut International Airport Marine barracks and sent another truck, loaded with explosives, in its place. Ismalal Ascari, an Iranian, drove the 19-ton truck over the barbed wire fence around the barracks, past two guard posts, and into the center of the compound, according to a federal court order issued earlier this year in a case brought by relatives of the victims. A total of 241 U.S. Marines, sailors and soldiers were killed.
"The resulting explosion was the largest non-nuclear explosion that had ever been detonated on the face of the Earth," the court order read. It was equal in force to between 15,000 and 21,000 pounds of TNT. "The force of its impact ripped locked doors from their doorjambs at the nearest building, which was 256 feet away," read the ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth. "Trees located 370 feet away were shredded and completely exfoliated."
All the windows at the airport control tower, half a mile away, shattered. A crater eight feet deep was carved into the earth, and 15 feet of rubble was all that remained of the four-story Marine barracks. "The force of the explosion ripped the building from its foundation. The building then imploded upon itself," read a Defense Department report on the attack. "Almost all the occupants were crushed or trapped inside the wreckage."
A U.S. investigation blamed lax security for allowing the bomber to get into the Marines' compound.
