"A lovely little war"

[seemslikeadream]

People & Events
The Invasion of Grenada

written by Julie Wolf

"A lovely little war" was what one correspondent called the 1983 U.S. invasion of Grenada. Most saw Operation Urgent Fury, its official name, as a guaranteed victory. The Caribbean island, the smallest independent country in the Western Hemisphere, was no match for American military might. Reagan championed the invasion as another step toward ridding the world of Communism, but the big victory over the little island also served as a major public relations coup for the recently battered administration.


Reagan was most concerned by the presence of Cuban construction workers and military personnel building a 10,000-foot airstrip on Grenada. Though Bishop had claimed the purpose of the airstrip was to allow commercial jets to land, Reagan believed its purpose was to allow military transport planes loaded with arms from Cuba to be transferred to Central American insurgents.

Also weighing on Reagan was the security of the 800 American medical students enrolled at St. George's School of Medicine in the former British commonwealth. After the coup, there was violence and anarchy, and with martial law and a shoot-on-sight curfew in effect in Grenada, Reagan was joined by many of his advisers, as well as much of the American public, in believing that the rescue of the American students was justification for an invasion.

Grenada had been something of a pet project for Reagan since his visit to Barbados in 1982, where Caribbean leaders echoed Reagan's own fear: that Grenada, with its socialist government and proximity to Cuba, could become a Communist beachhead in the Caribbean. While Reagan had been focused on Grenada for some time, he was unfairly accused of using the invasion to distract attention from other world events. Although the final decision to invade Grenada was made shortly after the Beirut bombings, by the time of the massacre in October 1983, Reagan had all but officially approved the invasion of Grenada. The accusation that the bombing in Lebanon motivated the invasion was, therefore, unfounded. If anything, one reporter argued, the destruction of the Marine barracks may have caused Reagan to hesitate.



Reagan's credibility was bolstered by what the 5,000-strong American invading force found on the island: a cache of weapons that could arm 10,000 men -- automatic rifles, machine guns, rocket launchers, antiaircraft guns, howitzers, cannon, armored vehicles and coastal patrol boats. In all, out of 800 Cubans, 59 were killed, 25 were wounded, and the rest were returned to Havana upon surrender. Forty-five Grenadians died, and 337 were wounded. America also suffered casualties: 19 dead and 119 wounded. The medical students came home unharmed.


more
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reagan/peopleevents/pande07.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Yeah, Grenada was so communist

that Queen Elizabeth was still the Head of State. She was reportedly very pissed off that Reagan decided to invade without even informing her.

[indigobusiness]

2. What's a little war among friends?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1750976#1752904


"If the reports of the American majority's basic human decency weren't greatly exaggerated, chances are we wouldn't have ever gone to Iraq. Arguments against war fell on deaf ears largely because "It would be unspeakably wrong" wasn't sufficiently compelling."