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From: leff@smu.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: What ever happened to Human Rights - (nf)
Message-ID: <4177@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 27-Nov-83 22:57:44 EST
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.4177
Posted: Sun Nov 27 22:57:44 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 30-Nov-83 01:34:02 EST
Lines: 45

#R:ihuxp:-52400:smu:12500006:000:2187
smu!leff    Nov 27 10:26:00 1983

One offer that should be made to the Grenadan people is to become
a state of the United States.

Why not:

We fought in the Dominican REpublic, South Korea, etc. only to find
that those countries become unrepresentative democracies.  In South Korea,
there is a repressive dictatorship.  In the Dominican Republic, there
are the same people who we fought to get rid of in the first place.
Chances are in Grenada within five years there will be some other
repressive dictatorship that supresses human rights and may be 
Communist.  As a state we can insure that we retain what we fought
for (a base, one less Communist country, etc.)  We can insure
the people of Grenada that they won't have to deal with the kinds
of problems they dealt with every again.

Look at Puerto Rico and Hawaii versus the Philippines.  Which is
better off, economically and politically.  Not that the situation in
the first two is peaches and cream but look at it relatively.  Puerto
Rico might have been better off as a state than as a Commonwealth. 

Economically, the people of Grenada would be better off.  Even under
the Reagan administration more money would flow into their economy
from normal U. S. aid programs than they would get as a friend of the the U. S.
or than they would get from Cuba and U. S. S. R. if they were Communist.

There is a historical precedent in Texas that won its freedom and
then voluntarily allowed itself to be annexed.  Neither area is sorry now.
Many of the 
areas in the southwest were taken from Mexico.  Again ostensibly to
help out 'Americans' who were living there.  It's worked out now
quite well for everyone involved.  

We should hold elections in Grenada.  One choice should be statehood
in America.  We shouldn't take them unless there is overwhelming agreement
on the part of the Grenadians (2/3 or 75 per cent or something like that).
Let us allow the international press and community to monitor the elections.
Sure the Soviets are going to say bad things about us.  But they aren't
particularly complementary right now anyway.

If we are going to fight a war lets insure that we maintain the gains
from that war and do something nice for the people involved.