TheMillerCircle.org

If we can’t take back our own country why not take someone else’s
If you are among the willing and feel like nation building after what we have been going through over the past few years, then your first impulse is to think about rebuilding our own country, take it back, restore some sanity and reclaim something that was stolen from us. All these are legitimate and appropriate reflexes under the circumstances. But let’s not kid ourselves about the daunting task in front of us. Bush is not an abberation. He was created by the conservative Republican Party and behind him there is and always will be a host of Republicans who pray at the alter of Ronald Reagan and believe America should be run by corporate interests and multinational giants who should be given unfettered access to the development of the country without any opposition from tree huggers or liberals or scientific information and influence. They have deep pockets and people like Bill Clinton, who perhaps stalled Newt Gingrich, did nothing to oppose the march towards a free market economy and further escalation of our advanced state of militarism.

Given the dimensions of the task ahead of us, if we want to rebuild America, a country that, in polling data published last year in Science Magazine revealed that when American adults were asked to respond to the question "Human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals," with "true or false", "not sure" or "I don’t know" their response placed the U.S. 33rd out of 34 countries ranked by "true", with only Turkey behind us. The same question has been posed to the American public since 1985 with a decrease in the number of adults who accept evolution from 45 to 40% over a twenty year period. A CBS poll in 2004 revealed that 65% of Americans favored teaching creationism alongside evolution in public schools. Nixon’s Southern strategy now rules the nation. Whether the 2006 election represents a turning point for public attitudes about science and political thought remains to be seen, but the other side of this issue, the advance towards an outrageous state of militarism, seems unabated, no matter which party is in control.

So given the challenge of the long-term rebuilding problems facing us here at home, why not take a page out of the Republican/neocon work book and think about getting our own country to rebuild.

My fellow Millercircledotcomers that is what I want to talk to you about today…

Since America has become such a challenge for rebuilding prospects along any liberal, progressive theme, let’s get a new country and start over. I suggest that we think seriously about re-invading Grenada, a small island nation off the coast of South America in the Caribbean. It should be a place of great nostalgia for all Americans. Next year will be the 25th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s triumphant invasion (1983) to depose the Castro Friendly Marxist regime of Bernard Coard. It produced America’s first military victory since WW II and helped to eradicate the shame of Vietnam, despite the fact that the war itself lasted only a few days. The triumph against Grenada is one reason why we feel so good about Ronny. It was a great military victory with a double sweet desert, because, in effect, it was the first military conflict with Cuba since the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion. The pretense for Reagan’s invasion was mistreatment of US students, many of whom were attending medical school there, but there was never any evidence that this was actually taking place. We claimed to invade with a multinational force, but the protectorate of Grenada, the UK (who had previously colonized the island), was pissed off because they didn’t even know about it until they saw it on their telys. A military victory in Grenada would remind us all of the the great romantic period of Ronny Reagan and the "ism" he inspired. The attraction of invading Grenada (don’t confuse Grenada with Granada which is part of Spain) is simply that if we can’t take back our own country, why not take a lesson from the Bushies and take back someone else’s. Tony Blair is such a good friend that we don’t have to tell him about our intentions, but we can later ask him to help us defend our actions to the rest of the English speaking world. I don’t think that will be much of a problem.

Our invasionary force for retaking Grenada does not have to be large; I have done some preliminary work, with several good contacts and, as long as we promise not to sell the country to the highest bidder, as Paul Bremer tried to do in Iraq, keep our mouths shut about converting the country into a free market enconomy, we will be greeted with open arms and home-grown flowers. Yes, a few of us may have to dress in camouflage military fatigues, but this is primarily for giving reassurances to the indigenouses that we can provide the secruity required. Alternatively, we can temporarily hire the Blackwater mercenaries, which are relatively cheap, only $900.00/day/person for domestic services, perhaps a little more if they are going to become part of an invasionary force. The citizens of Grenada need a change and that should be all the justification we require to assemble our invasionary force and take action. Once we take possession of the country, we can fully participate in land reform, taking an appropriately large share for our own needs as we try to figure out how best to protect the country as it evolves into a full blown democracy. After taking possession of the country and establishing civil order, the quickest way to create a sense of international stability is to see if our new island-nation has oil. If that fails, if we can’t find and develop oil, then we should think about developing an atomic bomb. This would afterall be following the leadership of the US, Russia, China, France, Britain, Israel, India, Pakistan and oh yes, we have to give partial credit to Saddam Hussein for whom it almost worked. Hussein reasoned, perhaps as we should, that developing an atomic bomb is risky behavior during the building/developmental process, but once you have one, voila, then you are welcomed by the Western world into the nuclear club and all kinds of good and generous acts come your way that were unavailable before. That is a developmental pathway that can assure our new country of international support and a level of stability we had no right to expect by any other form of internal development. Just ask Musharraf of Pakistan how well it has worked for him. And of course, this all would have worked for Saddam too, but his efforts were discovered in the developmental period, a no no by international standards, and the Israelis destroyed his facility. The development of the bomb would certainly merit us for consideration as a member in the United Nations and perhaps even the Security council. After all, becoming a protectorate is old school, we should aim higher. Furthermore our success in this new direction will establish the new Grenada as a model for other small island nation states to follow. We might even consider invading some of them, particularly if there’s a chance they have some oil. Exporting nuclear technology can also be highly protifable and if our emissaries who undertake this work are discovered doing this, we will have to denounce them publically, but wine and dine with them as we would normally do. They will not suffer any diminished shares in our new wealth. We must never undermine the fundamental importance of a good public relations machinery. Bright people saying bright, entertaining things that make the international sound bite arenas are also a form of creative stability. Just remember the older model of Idi Amin, who was on every front page in the world until it was discovered that he was eating his own people. A major movie filmed in Grenada would not do us any harm. By now, I think you are beginning to see the benefits of this new strategy. A country of our own, a place where liberalism can flourish, once the dictatorship that we will have to temproarily impose is terminated by a generous sunset law we put into place (a revokable one of course). Other benefits are that once we have control of the educational institutions, all of our sons and daughters and grandchildren can become doctors by attending their large medical school there, thus assuring them of a future state of prosperous poverty.

By the way, you might note that I have said nothing about the indigenous inhabitants of Grenada. Perhaps I should have. But the truth is we don’t give a shit about the people of Grenada. They are probably there for all the wrong reasons anyway and perhaps this is where we should take one little paragraph from the Bush adminsitration when he (they) said, "we don’t really have to pay attention to history, because we make our own history. Reality will be whatever we decide to make it. Knowing the past is unnecessary and confusing, so why try to master it. That is something for scholars to do, and, afterall, they are part of the problem too." For us, the bomb here is the key. The development period for our one atomic weapon (delivery of our weapon will be a separate problem, but the Russians can help; Putin is interested in establishing a new foothold of annoyance against the US in the New World and this could serve to our advantage) will be our most dangerous period of uncertainty, but the proper use of international tools, such as developing a warm relationship with China and Russia will do wonders for our success and we shouldn’t overlook the warm greetings we can expect from Chavez in Venezuela. We’ll have good buddies in many South American countries and we can take comfort in knowing that all the time, Bush and Cheney will be creating new friends for us.

I think this can work. If you all agree, this is the pathway I think we should follow: first, I would ask each of you to extend the credit on your credit cards to the maxium allowable. One thing my contacts in Grenada have been able to do is make sure credit card purchases will be available during the invasionary period. Blackwater also takes Mastercard and Visa and the fueling of one C5 transport plane is likely to wipe out one of our (your) credit cards in single blow. So the other thing I would ask of you, for the sake of securing a successful operation, is to have more than one credit card available. All of these resources will be more than repaid once we have complete control of the country, which should only take a day or two. I have been assured that this will be a bloodless coop.

Surely the appeal of starting over with a new country is gaining momentum with you by now. There are many fine homes in Grenada that have appeal for year-round residency. I am currently checking out one final issue before developing a complete plan by consulting, with the aid of predictive models generated by the climatologists grappling with global warming, to see if Grenada will be under water in fifty years.

RFM