[net.politics] British Built Airfield in Grenada

jmg@houxk.UUCP (11/05/83)

	Gee am I glad Andy Berman quoted the NY Times and Reuters about the
airport in Grenada being built by a British company. I was going to bring
it up myself but I was sure I would be classified as some poor demented
hacker.
	Berman and Kerwin take the British involvement in the airport as
definite proof of its harmlessness. I've agreed with those guys on many
things in the past but here's where we part company. I believe they suffer
from an all-too-common naievte' concerning Anglo-American relations.
	In fact the so-called "good relations" between America and England
have only existed for about 60 years - since the sinking of the Lusitania
was engineered by Woodrow Wilson and Winston Churchill who was then Lord of
the Admiralty to get America into WWI on England's side. Before that there
had been considerable pro-German feeling in America. Up until that time
New Yorkers celebrated Evacuation Day which was the anniversary of the
British withdrawal from New York in the American Revolution. Afterward it
was considered in bad taste. During the past 60 years America has acted
as England's Ally but England has never acted as America's Ally unless
it was in their own interest - and it usually was.
	During the Civil War England sided with the South following the
divide and conquer principle. The South's ironclad ship, the Merrimac, was
built in England and they frequently ran naval blockades with weapons and
supplies to the South. Their support for the South did not come for any
ideological reasons but was based purely on Machiavellian principles. In the
end it only prolonged the war and caused a greater loss of American lives
on both sides.
	If anyone cares to take a trip to West Point as I did recently you
will find a large collection of cannon captured from America's foes thru
the past 200+ years located around the grounds. A sizable proportion of them
bear English markings, some stating the city and company that made them.
Over and over one sees that the date of manufacture was just a year or two
before their capture which means they were made specifically to fight THAT
particular war against America.
	More recently during the American economic boycott of Cuba Britian was
Johny-on-the-spot to carry on trade with the Cubans and supply them with
everything they were unable to get from America.
	One retired U.S. Naval Officer wrote to a newspaper bitterly
complaining of his experiences in finding captured North Korean soldiers
fighting with British weapons during the Korean War and later he said there
were many times during the Vietnam War when U.S. planes could not bomb Haiphong
Harbor in North Vietnam because the harbor was crowded with British ships. In
fact Britian had the second largest number of ships in North Vietnamese harbors
after the Soviets.
	After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan when the U.S. called for
a boycott of the Moscow Olympic Games the British not only allowed their
athletes to go, but they came away with the largest number of medals from
that Olympiad - a truly empty victory!
	After the take-over of Iran by the supporters of Ayatollah Khoumeni
there were many uncaptured Americans in Iran seeking covert assistance from
other embassies to get out of the country before capture. Not many people
are aware of this, but those who sought assistance from the British Embassy
were flatly refused help. Meanwhile as our people were being held hostage
the British government was selling the revolutionary Iranian government
tank engines for their British-built Scorpion tanks which would have been
used against the U.S. in the event of a serious attempt to free the hostages.
	When the head of Amnesty International, Sean McBride, an
internationally known jurist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient offered to
negotiate for the release of the hostages the British used all their influence
to stop this man because Amnesty International had proved in the European Court
of Human Rights that the British government was guilty of the systematic use of
torture in Northern Ireland in hundreds if not thousands of cases. After their
first conviction and pledge not to use torture again the British government was
brought before the same body on the same charges a few years later and was again
found guilty. When the American hostages eventually returned, you may have
noticed, their flight bypassed Britian and landed in Ireland for a rest before
continuing home.
	When the U.S. government asked the British not to give technical aid
to the USSR in the construction of the Russian pipeline to Western Europe the
British again turned us down.
	When the U.S. developed a way to monitor Soviet telephone conversations
using spy satellites the secret was revealed to the Soviets by an agent of
British Intelligence and the Soviet leaks were stopped.
	Sir Anthony Blunt, a personal friend of Queen Elizabeth, was discovered
by British Intelligence to have been acting as a Soviet agent since WWII. When
it was discovered he was moved out of his sensitive position in British
Intelligence and was made Queen Elizabeth's personal art advisor!! How much
jail time did Sir Anthony Blunt serve? ZERO, ZILCH, NADA, NOTHING!!!
	In 1979 a $70,000 photographic image enhancer (System 8000 model 30SE)
from the Comtal Corporation of California was purchased by a British arms
manufacturer, Vickers Ltd (famous for machine guns) and a division of Rolls
Royce. The device was then resold by Vickers to the Soviet Union. This device
was presumably use by the Soviets to enhance their spy satellite photographs
of U.S. bases and military movements. Eventually Comtal came up with an
improvement retrofit for their device and notified customers to return the
system to the factory for upgrading. The Soviets hearing of this (presumably
from the British) sent the device back thru Vickers and when it came to the
U.S. in 1982 it was seized by agents of the Commerce Department. To the best
of my knowledge neither the British companies nor any of their personnel were
ever penalized for this fiasco. Please consult the article "U.S. Seizes
USSR-bound Device" by Howard Roth in a 1982 issue of Electronic Engineering
Times.
	When the war in the Falklands/Malvinas came along the U.S. backed
the British to the hilt with arms, money, technical expertise and the use of
U.S. military bases and aircraft. One U.S. sailor even told me his ship was
on standby to go to the Falklands if the British required naval assistance.
This was done at the cost of considerable influence an prestige in Latin
America and may have contributed to the radicalization of Grenada.
	Recently I read in a Jack Anderson column that when the U.S. tried
to re-establish more friendly relations with Argentina, Margaret Thatcher
threatened to let arms from Central American countries pass thru British
occupied Belize into Mexico thus destabilizing the Mexican government and
indirectly threatening the borders of the U.S. if we did normalize relations
with Argentina.
	Now why don't you ask me if I think Britain would do anything to
harm U.S. interests like building the Soviets an airfield in Grenada?

dee@cca.UUCP (Donald Eastlake) (11/05/83)

"Evacuation Day" is still an official holiday each year for Boston,
celebrating the day that British troops left the city.  Of course
there is more of a tradition from the Boston Tea Party, etc., here.
	+	Donald E. Eastlake, III
	ARPA:	dee@CCA-UNIX		usenet:	{decvax,linus}!cca!dee

kdc@ariel.UUCP (K.COOLEY) (11/05/83)

It is refreshing to hear the other side of the so-called special
relationship between the UK government and the USA.
However the innuendo of the last paragraph implying that the UK is
helping the "Soviets" does not make sense and reveals the 
prejudice of the respondent. The imminent deployment of US cruise
missiles, targeted at the Soviet Union, at Greenham and elsewhere
in Britain should make it clear how the UK government feels
about the "Soviets".
Keith

mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton) (11/06/83)

J. McGhee's blast at Britain has a familiar style.  It reads just like
the Larry Flynt ad of a month or so ago telling how the USSR is a bunch
of nice guys and the USA is a bunch of SOB's.  I take it about as seriously,
(although at least this article does cite a few references.)

ricks@tekcad.UUCP (11/07/83)

#R:houxk:-11700:tekcad:20100012:000:442
tekcad!franka    Nov  6 10:11:00 1983

	I was wondering. Does this guy with the flame against Great
Britain work for Lyndon LaRouche or the Fusion Energy Fund? If you're
going to spout venom, you might as well tell us how all pornography
and drugs (and probably herpes, too) was sent over here from there,
also.

               				From the truly menacing,
   /- -\       				but usually underestimated,
    <->        				Frank Adrian
               				(tektronix!tekcad!franka)

dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) (11/08/83)

While I'm not going to comment either way on the article's thesis in
general, I do remember my grade 8 history on the U.S. Civil War. The
British are reported to have taken the attitude:

	Though with the North we sympathize
	It must not be forgotten
	That with the South we've stronger ties
	Which are composed of cotton.

(Amazing how these jingles stick with one after 13 years...)

This attitude still holds true today for many countries, if you
replace "cotton" with "oil". (I know, then it doesn't rhyme...)

Dave Sherman
-- 
 {allegra,cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo}!utcsrgv!dave

padpowell@wateng.UUCP (PAD Powell [Admin]) (11/08/83)

Whooo! Boy,  if this fellow is able to drag up ancient history, I guess I can.

The U.S.A. launched an aggressive war of conquest against Britain in 1812.
It lost.  Never hear about that, eh?

The U.S.A. has backed the kidnapping and transport of citizens of other
countries from these countries, to stand trial in U.S. courts.  This is
in direct violation of treaties and agreements.  I have a list of several
U.S. citizens that I would like to kidnap and have stand trial for various
things, up to and including murder, arson, hit and run (while drunk!).
(Details may be found on enquiry from the Globe and Mail in Toronto).

Last year over 1,200 handguns were seized at the U.S.-Canadian border.
I wish the U.S. would stop promoting this illegal arms shipment,
and educate their citizens that while pot shotting your neighbours
and friends is a fine hobby in the U.S., it is frowned upon elsewhere.

Patrick ("I think we should start net.innuendo and net.sillyness")
	Powell