ustxtxb_obs_2006_07_14_50_00017-00000_000.pdf

, Austin’s Largest Selection of International Folk Art, Silver Jewelry and Textiles E SO 114. S TRADING COMPANY FOLK ART & OTHER TREASURES FROM AROUND THE WORLD 1209 CONGRESS AVE AUSTIN 512/V9.8377/ \\1 OPEN DAILY 10-6 www.tesoros.com ,44$ Brooks Brothers, led a charge up. Kettle Hill” and “American cruisers destroyed the few decrepit Spanish naval vessels anchored at Santiago” in a single day. “Just 385 Americans had been killed in action, barely more than Sioux Indians had killed at Little Big Horn in the country’s last major military engagement, twenty-two years before.” No wonder the American statesman John Hay called it “a splendid little war.” As for our promises to let Cuba rule itself, we quickly backed off on that. Republicans in Congress and much of the press greatly exaggerated our part in whipping Spain and argued, successfully, that Cubans had little to do with it and deserved to rule themselves only so long “as they allowed the United States to veto any decision they made.” Castro was still a long way off. Representative Dick Cheney of Wyoming said the invasion made “a lot of folks around the world feel we are more steady and reliable than heretofore.” couple of Kinzer’s regime changes are pure comic opera. Grenada for example a tiny, former British colony in the Caribbean. On October 21, 1983, eager to get away from Washington for a few rounds of golf at Augusta, President Reagan hurriedly signed an order for a naval task force heading for Lebanon to change course and go to Grenada to … Well, nobody was exactly sure, but apparently a couple of wacky “Marxist” cliques were in a shooting donnybrook to see who would have political control down there. And maybe a couple of hundred American students at a medical school on Grenada were in danger. Actually, when polled by their dean, 90 percent of the students said they felt perfectly safe. But the naval task force steamed on. The invasionnamed Operation Urgent Furywould not be easy. The Pentagon had no up-to-date maps of Grenada, so some of our troops had to use photocopies of tourist maps. About 6,000 troops landed in Grenada, “at least twice the number needed for the job,” writes Kinzer. A mental hospital was accidentally bombed, killing more than a dozen patients. Several dozen others stumbled away, dazed, and some were still wandering days later. Oops! Neither Reagan nor any other American official had told the Brits what we were up to. “The United Nations General Assembly overwhelming passed a resolution ‘deeply deploring’ … a flagrant violation of international law.” But Representative Dick Cheney of Wyoming said the invasion made “a lot of folks around the world feel we are more steady and reliable than heretofore?’ Reagan was doggone proud, too. In a speech to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society in New York, he proclaimed, “Our days of weakness are over! Our military forces are back on their feet, and standing tall.” Except for the 250 Marines who had been killed by a bomb in Lebanon at the same time we were invading Grenada. And finally we musn’t forget our very first regime change, in 1893, when a few dozen sugar planters and descen dants of missionaries, wanting more control of island commerce, overthrew Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii. It wasn’t a fair fight. The sugar planters got the help of 162 American Marines and sailors who were passing through. The queen’s “army” consisted of the Honolulu police chief. Longtime Observer contributor Robert Sherrill’s most recent book is First Amendment Felon : The Story of Frank Wilkinson, His 132,000 Page FBI File and His Epic Fight for Civil Rights and Liberties JULY 14, 2006 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 17