 Although New Jersey performed her job expertly during the intervention in Lebanon some have criticized the decision to have New Jersey shell Druze and Syrian forces . Members of this camp allege that this action forced a shift in the previously neutral U.S. forces by convincing local Lebanese Muslims that the United States had taken the Christian side ; New Jersey 's shells had killed hundreds of people , mostly Shiites and Druze . In his memoir , General Colin Powell ( at the time an assistant to Caspar Weinberger ) noted that " When the shells started falling on the Shiites , they assumed the American ‘ referee ’ had taken sides . " 
