El Dorado Canyon

by Joseph T. Stanik

"America's war on terrorism did not start on 11 September. In 1986, long before the overt war in Afghanistan and the covert war against al-Qaida, U.S. aircraft struck at the heart of Muammar Qaddafi's Libya, attacking carefully selected targets in one of the world's hotbeds of terrorism. Code-named Operation El Dorado Canyon, the raid was in direct response to Qaddafi's support of a terrorist act against U.S. service personnel stationed in Europe and the result of President Ronald Reagan's pledge to respond to terrorism with "swift and effective retribution."". "Stanik, a retired naval officer and Middle East scholar, provides a detailed account of the raid as well as an in-depth analysis of its causes and effects. He also describes three other hostile encounters between U.S. and Libyan forces during Reagan's presidency and recounts U.S. covert operations. From a bombing in Berlin to an explosion in the skies over Lockerbie, from the halls of power in Washington to airbases in England