Mickey Z. -- World News Trust
Sept. 29, 2006 -- Near the end of October, we will mark the twenty-third anniversary of a momentous American victory... a military operation that not only warmed Ronald Raygun's cold, cold heart but was also deemed film-worthy by the former mayor of Carmel, California. Yes, of course, I'm talking about the Oct. 25, 1983, "liberation" of Grenada.
In March 1979, socialist leader Maurice Bishop took over Grenada in a
bloodless coup. Once deemed "a lovely piece of real estate" by U.S.
Secretary of State George Shultz, Grenada is a small East Caribbean
island of some 133 square miles and 110,000 inhabitants. Half of its
nationals live in the People's Republic of Brooklyn.
The
United States worked to destabilize the Bishop regime but, in early October
1983, he was ultimately deposed and later murdered by a group even more
to the "Left" than he. That's when America decided to risk awakening
this sleeping Caribbean flea by launching a preemptive military strike.
Raygun
declared that the invasion was "forced on us by events that have no
precedent in the eastern Caribbean," leaving the United States with "no choice
but to act strongly and decisively." (Sound familiar?) After adding the
obligatory statements about Soviet and Cuban designs on the island, the
Great Communicator sent roughly 2,000 American Marines in to lead an
operation called "Urgent Fury." The fighting was over in a week.
Casualties included 135 Americans killed or wounded along 84 Cubans and
some 400 Grenadians dead.
"The
American media rarely mentioned Grenadian casualties of U.S.
aggression," explains Ramsey Clark. "It barely reported the mental
hospital destroyed by a Navy jet, leaving more than 20 dead." (Sound
familiar?)
A
Wall Street Journal headline blared: U.S. INVADES GRENADA IN WARNING TO
RUSSIA AND CUBA ABOUT EXPANSION IN THE CARIBBEAN. It was also a warning
to potential critics.
"The
invasion was already under way, so even if we opposed it, there was
nothing any of us could do," Democratic House Speaker Tip O'Neil said
at the time. "I had some serious reservations, and I'm sure my
Democratic colleagues did as well, but I'd be damned if I was going to
voice any criticism while our boys were out there." (Sound familiar?)
Let's
not forget the "Grenada 17." Amnesty International's UK media director,
Lesley Warner, wrote in 2003 that these 17 prisoners were "initially
held without charge in cages, before being tried before an unfair,
ad-hoc tribunal. They were denied access to legal counsel and to
documents needed for their defense. After sentencing, the Grenada 17
were held in tiny cells with lights left permanently on." (Sound
familiar?)
Raygun
stopped short of donning a flight suit, but did make a speech on the
fourth day of the invasion, which, according to journalist William Blum,
"succeeded in giving jingoism a bad name."
"The
president managed to link the invasion of Grenada with the shooting
down of a Korean airliner by the Soviet Union, the killing of U.S.
soldiers in Lebanon, and the taking of American hostages in Iran," says
Blum. "Clearly, the invasion symbolized an end to this string of
humiliations for the United States. Even Vietnam was being avenged. To
commemorate the American Renaissance, some 7,000 U.S. servicemen were
designated heroes of the republic and decorated with medals. (Many had
done no more than sit on ships near the island.) American had regained
its manhood, by stepping on a flea."
It's all too familiar...
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Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net.
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