(CNN) -- Operation El Dorado Canyon, authorized by President Ronald Reagan and launched on April 14, 1986, entailed the bombing of military and terrorist installations in Tripoli, Libya. The attack was ordered partly in retaliation for Libya's role in the bombing of a West Berlin discotheque that claimed the life of two U.S. servicemen and a Turkish citizen while injuring more than 200 people, including many Americans. Reagan also described the U.S. attack on Libya as a "pre-emptive action ... (designed to) diminish Col. (Moammar Gadhafi's) capacity to export terror." He warned, "If necessary, we shall do it again." Criticized by Western European allies, the U.S. maneuver was endorsed by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Speaking at the House of Commons on April 15, she reasoned that "Article 51 of the U.N. Charter specifically recognizes the right of self-defense. In view of Libya's promotion of terrorism, the failure of peaceful means to deter it and the evidence that further attacks were threatened, I replied to the (U.S.) president that we would support action directed against specific Libyan targets. ..."
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Kiron Skinner: Margaret Thatcher gave crucial support to anti-terror efforts
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She says British prime minister backed Reagan's retaliation against Libya
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Skinner: Thatcher was an early, prescient voice on terrorism's threat to the West
Even @placeholder's defense of the U.S. action was not unqualified.