Re: Is she toast?

On Tue, 13 May 2008, Peter Boulding wrote:

> On Mon, 12 May 2008 15:05:04 +0000, "Bill Bonde ( 'the oblique allusion
in
> lieu of the frontal attack' )"  <tributyltinpaint@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in
> <48285CA0.B639A02E@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>:
>
>> It amazes me
>> that "Iraq" could be such a big deal. How is Iraq different than
>> Panama, Granada, the Balkans?
>
> The Balkans, like Gulf 1, had widespread international sup****t and did
not
> reek of military or economic imperialism. The prime motive was to ensure
the
> continuation of stability in Western Europe and in this NATO was fairly
> successful.
>
> Iraq is in some ways very similar to Panama, except in scale; in both
cases
> the US turned against its own man as soon as the level of embarrassment
he
> was causing outweighed his usefulness.
>
> Granada is said to be the only occasion on which Reagan's people were
unable
> to persuade him out of a piece of real dumbass stupidity, but was on
such a
> tiny scale that no-one other than Clint Eastwood bothered very much.

Nope, the Invasion of Grenada was a fairly clever bit of slight of hand. 
That operation began Oct 25, 1983, two days after two truck bombs killed 
241 US servicefolk in Beirut.  Grenada took the spotlight off the absurd 
Beirut mission and the heat off Reagan for his dumbass foreign policy.  It

was "Look over there! An elephant! *yoink*) done on a grand scale.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Grenada
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Beirut_barracks_bombing





-- 
"Thank heavens I'm atheist, otherwise I'd be in fear of going
to hell."   Veronique explains comparative religion.