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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!dartvax!quark
From: quark@dartvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: Grenada: Eyewitness Report
Message-ID: <316@dartvax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 28-Oct-83 09:41:58 EST
Article-I.D.: dartvax.316
Posted: Fri Oct 28 09:41:58 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 31-Oct-83 21:21:29 EST
References: ihuxm.662
Lines: 23

I'd just like to add something to this report. I think that the invasion
was more than a ploy to help insure Reagan's re-election next year (in
this regard, I personally think it will not). On the one hand, it tested
the waters of U.S. public and world opinion for a possible invasion of
Nicaragua insofar as the CIA trained emigres are not faring so well.
Secondly, it appears to be a clear statement that 'gunboat diplomacy'
is being re-established and that the Grenadan fate might well be shared
by other nations which don't fit Reagan's 'norms' of behavior. Lastly,
the U.S. has a long and sad history of overthrowing governments of
sovereign states either covertly or openly. This was not so much the
result of not following our 'norms' in a moral sense but because the
interests of many of our large corporations might have been jeopardized
in a financial way. In the case of Grenada and other of the Central
American nations, United Fruits (now United Brands) made most of
its fortune by running massive plantations for banana and other
fruit production. There are also untapped oil reserves in the Caribbean
basin which are only now being developed. Anaconda copper in Chile,
the oil companies in the Middle East (Iran, 1953), and the list goes
on. We've been hearing so much of Reagan's 'Soviet threat' lately
that it's time to realize we are not exactly the 'guardian of
democracy' we are purported to be.
 
Sorry for the flame  ---  Ken Schwartzman ---- !decvax!dartvax!quark