Twenty years ago today world history took an amazing lurch in a different direction: Ronald Reagan ordered an invasion of the Caribbean nation of Grenada. All sorts of reasons were given for the incursion -- to protect American students at a local medical school, to prevent a Cuban airbase from being built, to restore democracy after a second Marxist coup -- but the real motive was to flex American muscle after years of humiliating setbacks in Vietnam, Iran and Beirut.
Beating up on the tiny Grenandian army and a Cuban construction battalion was the equivalent of a US college football powerhouse like Notre Dame scheduling a game against Eastern Wabash Ladies' Seminary -- no matter how easy the triumph, it counts as a win in the standings and gets the team used to victory.
Before Grenada lay a long stretch of losses at the hands of the Viet Cong, Iranian Muslim hostage-takers and Lebanese suicide bombers; after October 1983 came the thwarting of Marxism in Central America and the collapse of the Soviet Union. America had got its mojo back.
Posted by Dexter at October 25, 2003 09:58 AM