And they did it without killing children or women. Covered in two verrry different movies... “Sword of Gideon” and
Spielberg’s morally equivalent preachy “Munich”.
It is not well known, but there was/is a book “Confessiona os an Anti-terrorist” written by former SAS mercenary— it describes the operations to kill ALL of the Lebanon Marine Barracks bombers. Ronald Reagan, through his very capable former OSS team leader, William Casey (at CIA) hired the very best “deniable” private contractors of the day. And the did it, very well— walk in walk out of deepest terror enclaves, with Farsi speaking team members. It happened.
Have not been able to find the book again in any library— which is why would confirm it happened.
First thing I thought after reading the source is if Reagan and Golda had that agreement. I will look for the book and if so, the only grudge against Reagan I have had is the seeming none response to Beirut. Problem is, Hezbollah is alive and well.
Since I have learned Iran was/is behind Hezbollah the social psychologists should have told Reagan to blow up the place in plain site to let everyone know what happens when our boots are attacked. Now we have doubts about Extortion 17 being a lucky shot and wonder if in fact the SEALs were sacrificed to diffuse a terrorist response.
There was one case of mistaken identify, Norway or Sweden, where a waiter on a date was mistaken for the target — and killed. The group was recalled to Israel. I believe there is only one Black September henchman still alive. They seem to have gotten to all the others.