How the World Works

After all, there’s a long series of them. Take Grenada. That was a
humanitarian intervention. We were going to save the people from
tragedy and turn it into what Reagan called a “showplace for
democracy” or a “showplace for capitalism.”
The US poured aid in. Grenada had the highest per capita aid in
the world the following year—next to Israel, which is in another
category. And it turned into a complete disaster.
The society is in total collapse. About the only thing that’s
functioning there is money-laundering for drugs. But nobody hears
about it. The television cameras were told to look somewhere else.
So if the Marine intervention turns out to be a success, which is
conceivable, then there’ll be plenty of focus on it and how
marvelous we are. If it turns into a disaster, it’s off the map—forget
about it. Either way we can’t lose.