First, in 1983, the US military committed a crime against Grenada
On October 19, 1983, then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan received breaking news that Maurice Bishop, prime minister of the Caribbean island nation of Grenada, had been executed by the military of the coup.
This was not bad news for Reagan, because Prime Minister Bishop was a socialist: he was not only a believer in Marxism, but also closely related to the anti-American Cuban leader, Fidel Castro.
But with that came the worse news: the political stance of the coup soldiers who executed him was more radical than grenada's ruling party, the New Gem Movement, which, if they could, paddle the entire island of Grenada from the Caribbean Sea and fight with Cuba.
Moreover, they are still big fans of the hardline former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, and it is hard to imagine what these armed soldiers with guns will do against the United States in the future.
Other information from Secretary of State Schultz made Reagan restless because, as far as he knew, there were thousands of intern American college students and business expatriates in Grenada who were likely to be hostages in the coup soldiers.
Reagan recalled four years ago, in November 1979, when the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was surrounded by angry Iranians after the Islamic Revolution broke out in Iran, and 52 U.S. diplomats were held hostage until two years later.
That hostage incident and subsequent failed rescue operations led directly to the collapse of former President Jimmy Carter's reputation and the crushing defeat in the election in which Reagan was forced to step down.
Reagan's think tanks feared that if the United States left grenada unchecked, another hostage crisis could erupt that would lead to the president's ouster.
Reagan and Schultz
Grenada is located at the southernmost tip of the Caribbean Sea, while Cuba is at the northernmost tip of the Caribbean Sea, and once these two hostile countries to the United States are closely united, the position of the United States in the Caribbean sea will be in jeopardy, and the future entry and exit of the United States fleet from Florida to the Atlantic Will depend on the faces of others.
The United States will not look at anyone's face.
After three consecutive days of consultations with Schultz, Presidential National Security Adviser McFarland, and General Vissay, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, leaders in Washington agreed that Grenada should be sent immediately to kill any signs that might be detrimental to the United States.
The Logic of God in America has always been this: I hit you not because you threatened me, but because I thought you might threaten me.
It's like a person stalking another person on the road for a long time, and then directly hit the person with a stick and told the passerby: Believe me, although this guy is not stabbing me with a knife now, he is likely to stab me with a knife in the future.
Beginning in 1701, first France and then Britain, the imperialists maintained colonial rule in the West Indies, including Grenada, for more than 200 years, while since World War I the United States had almost turned the other Caribbean islands except the British-occupied islands into their colonies and military bases through frequent intervention and plunder.
This is why the coup d'état in Grenada, like the Cuban Revolution more than 20 years ago, made the big capitalists in the United States extremely panicked, and they were very afraid that the wave of revolution would blow like a hurricane across the Caribbean and sweep the American power out of the country completely.
The United States is also well aware that the people of Latin America today deeply resent the "US imperialism" that frequently interferes militarily in its own internal affairs and wields the stick of economic sanctions at every turn.
After Grenada's independence in 1974, the country was in a state of chaos for a long time, and Bishop's left-wing party, the New Gem Movement, won popular support with its slogans of "anti-imperialism and non-alignment", "committed to genuine independence", and "equality of black power", and seized power in March 1979.
Grenada Prime Minister Bishop (center) and Castro (right)
Bishop was dissatisfied with the hegemonic policy of the United States for many years to invade or control the countries of the Caribbean, but Grenada was only a small country with an area of more than 340 square kilometers and a population of only 100,000, and in order to seek help, he found the Cuban leader Castro, who was across the water.
This can touch the sore feet of the United States, because Behind Castro is the Soviet Union, and anti-American Cuba is undoubtedly a mine planted by the Soviet Union in the backyard of the United States.
Since the Reagan administration in the United States came to power in January 1981, it has resolutely implemented a foreign policy of "every Soviet union must be opposed", and it has extremely hated the national liberation movements around the world and tried by any means to eliminate all people's forces that may be unfavorable to it, and the coup in Grenada has provided a wonderful excuse for the United States to intervene.
The irony is that the US military attack on Grenada is logically a revenge for its "enemy", but for the extremely thick-skinned US government, it is just a piece of cake.
As long as it is beneficial to oneself, even if it is a hardcore ally of the United States that betrays itself, it will do it, and how can it care about the distinction between the enemy and the enemy in name only?
Soon, The Commander-in-Chief of the Atlantic Region, General Macdonald, gathered 15 warships from the 22nd Carrier Battle Group and Task Force 124, carrying 1,900 Marines, to Grenada with the support of 5,700 men from the 82nd Airborne Division and the 75th Ranger Regiment.
It is worth mentioning that in this invasion war, the United States dispatched two of its first-class special forces, namely the 6th SEALs commando team and the 75th Ranger Regiment, but their performance was very bad.
Late on the night of October 24, 12 MEMBERS of the 6THL Team landed in C-130 transport aircraft over the sea southwest of Grenada, preparing to carry out reconnaissance missions for the Cuban side of the military airfield being built at Cape Sarins.
C-130 transport aircraft
Unfortunately, that night, the wind and waves off Grenada were high, and the American rubber boats that were scheduled to come to meet them did not arrive on time.
Since there was no time to get rid of the parachute, 4 U.S. elites had just landed on the surface of the sea when they were dragged directly into the seabed by dead equipment to feed the seafood, and the other 8 were rescued by the U.S. destroyer after drinking enough seawater at sea.
Although the reconnaissance operation was a failure, the U.S. Air Force's operation completely suppressed the Grenada defenders' counterattack. Attack aircraft and helicopter gunships taking off from U.S. aircraft carriers indiscriminately bombed the island's defensive positions and airfields, followed by a company of U.S. Marines parachuting directly onto the island.
By 2 p.m., the U.S. military had taken full control of the Cap Salins airfield and expelled the Grenadian People's Army and Cuban engineers there, after which the main forces of the 82nd Airborne Division began to arrive in the combat area.
The Grenada People's Army, the Grenadian armed forces on the island at the time, were at best small-armsed stragglers, whose combat effectiveness and will to fight were no match for those of the U.S. military, and the hundreds of Cuban engineers who built the airfield had only 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine guns, which could not pose a substantial threat to The United States transport aircraft.
Because Grenada had no real anti-aircraft weapons, the U.S. paratroopers achieved a major victory almost without any losses, capturing more than 200 Cuban sappers and destroying the few armored vehicles they had.
On October 26, the U.S. military dispatched a third special forces force: the "Delta" special forces that are most familiar to Chinese military fans. They flew Black Hawk helicopters to launch a surprise attack on the government prison on Mount Richmond.
The US special forces did not expect that there were 2 ZSU-23mm self-propelled anti-aircraft guns here, and the shells of the anti-aircraft guns exploded 2 helicopters on the spot, and the wreckage of the aircraft and the bodies of people scattered in the smoke and fire.
Even the most powerful flesh had to obey the laws of physics in the face of the shells, and the "Delta" troops had to turn around and flee, and the assault was declared a failure.
The Black Hawk helicopter carried U.S. troops to land in Grenada
But at the end of the day, it was an unequal war, with Grenada's limited firepower completely pressed to the ground in front of the overwhelming number of American aircraft.
On the morning of 28 October, the exchange of fire on the island was largely over, the resistance of the coup soldiers was completely defeated, and 115 people were killed, 393 wounded and 642 captured on the Cuban and Grenadian sides.
The U.S. military had 35 dead and missing (actually dead), 93 injured, 7 helicopters destroyed, and seven others damaged to varying degrees, costing $130 million in nine days of military operations.
In this way, the United States nominally restored Grenada's "democracy" and "freedom", and its hegemonic ruling order in the Caribbean was maintained.
Despite the poor communications and intelligence efforts of the U.S. military during the invasion (for example, the Marines' map of Grenada turned out to be a tour guide map drawn by the tour company), the situation that Reagan and his staff feared that the U.S. army would be engaged in a protracted guerrilla war or a more terrible "people's war" in Grenada did not occur.
That was the main reason for the crushing defeat of the U.S. military in Vietnam, and the worst nightmare for the U.S. authorities in the nearly decade since the end of the Vietnam War.
The united States quickly won victory in Grenada, first and foremost because the coup soldiers lost the support of the people, they used violent means to overthrow the original government, and killed the main leaders of the former government, and their bloody methods frightened ordinary people.
Moreover, the gunfire of the coup d'état soldiers at the demonstrators further exacerbated the confrontation between the two sides, and because of this, in the process of the US occupation of Grenada, some people even put up signs that read "thank you to the Americans".
Second, the people of Grenada have a better sense of the United States than they do: because American tourism and spice purchases are the main source of income for Grenada, locals have long been impressed by the generosity of American tourists and businessmen.
Since the Grenada government's feud with the United States, consumption from the United States has decreased dramatically, causing the people's living standards to decline, which makes them nostalgic for the rich days when they used to carry dollars in their pockets.
U.S. forces attack local targets
Third, even Bishop's former government was massively expanding its military to defend against U.S. aggression, and they even planned to build an army of 14,000 people in Grenada, which was almost unthinkable for the island's population, so this extreme militarization policy was widely opposed by the local population.
In fact, the United States was very afraid of being involved in a long war in Grenada, because Grenada was still a Commonwealth country, and the night before the United States invaded the country, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher called Reagan and asked the United States to immediately cancel the offensive operation.
After the United States invaded Grenada, not only the Soviet Union and Cuba, but also other Commonwealth countries reacted very strongly in the United Nations, complaining that this was an open aggression by a sovereign country against another sovereign country, and if the war dragged on for a long time, it would endanger THE US-British relations and lead to the united States being passive in the international community.
If the Grenadian government can organize the masses of the people to resist to a certain extent, the United States is likely to rush to collect troops because it is worried about international influence, because the United States will not do a loss-making business because of a small island.
Intervention in Somalia in 1993: Elite U.S. special forces were brutally punched in the face
In 1991, the commander-in-chief of the Somali army, Aideed, sent troops to attack President Mahdi, and coupled with the local tribal conflict, sectarian conflicts broke out, causing the "Horn of Africa" to fall into a full-scale civil war.
In June 1992, a United Nations-organized investigation concluded that war and years of famine had threatened to starve 4.5 million of Somalia's 7.7 million people, and that 1.5 million people could die of starvation if the fighting were allowed to continue.
Because of the major humanitarian catastrophe that would result, in December 1992, the United Nations, led by the United States, organized a task force of more than 40,000 people to enter Somalia to pressure all parties in the civil war to stop the war and negotiate peace.
Audrey Hepburn in Somalia during the civil war
By this time, the Soviet Union had been disintegrating for nearly a year, and the United States had just easily crushed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi troops with all-Soviet equipment in the Gulf War, and it was in full swing and had become the only superpower worthy of the world.
The united States, which is content to believe that it should play more of a role in the world to demonstrate the power of "democracy" and "freedom", has been particularly active in this peacekeeping operation, and has even paid off the arrears of the United Nations dues for many years (and has been in arrears since 1993).
But since the U.S. soldiers set foot on the land of the Somali capital Mogadishu, politicians and capitalists in Washington have made a calculation in their hearts: the goal of peacekeeping troops to expand the influence of the United States has been achieved, and the NEXT US military will burn nearly a million dollars in military spending every day in Somalia, which is not a good deal.
Moreover, the operations of the US military in Somalia are inevitable to have scandals such as accidental injury to civilians, abuse of prisoners, and bombing of wrong targets, which have a great negative impact on the image of the United Nations task force.
In fact, this is the consistent practice of the US military in the world: after the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in September 1945, a large number of US troops stationed in China carried out vicious acts such as forced buying and selling, killing and injuring Chinese civilians, insulting women, and causing traffic accidents every day, until the collapse of the Kuomintang regime in 1949.
The purpose of the United Nations is neutrality and justice, not to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, let alone to harm the civilians of other countries, but for the US military these principles are like a wind in the ears.
Due to the various outrageous behaviors of the US military, it has caused serious hostility among the Somali people, coupled with the anti-AMERICAN propaganda of local warlords, which has led to one attack after another against the task force.
In May 1993, the withdrawal of the task force from Somalia began, and a small number of peacekeepers took over the task of the task force, and the somali civil war, which had gradually subsided, was once again spiraling out of control.
The fighting has caused great suffering to the somali locals
Believing that Aideed had instigated an attack on peacekeepers, the U.S. government prepared to send special forces to carry out a "beheading" operation, hoping to kill or capture Aideed.
On October 3, 1993, the U.S. military organized 160 special forces soldiers, aboard 14 Black Hawk and Bird helicopters, to enter Mogadishu under the cover of 12 Humvees and heavy vehicles, in an attempt to arrest four of Aided's main men who were staying at the Olympic Hotel in the city.
Although the operational unit numbers only 160, the four major U.S. special forces: the Delta Special Forces, the Navy SEAL 6, the 160th Special Aviation Operations Regiment and the 75th Ranger Regiment are all involved.
In addition, the operational forces were provided with P3 reconnaissance aircraft and 4 Army reconnaissance helicopters from the aircraft carrier "Lincoln" to provide on-site intelligence at any time, which can be described as a whole street of equipment for the local armed forces in Somalia.
According to the plan of the commander of the operation, General William Garrison, the American troops will parachute into the vicinity of the Olympic Hotel, and after capturing people, they will immediately withdraw from Mogadishu.
However, the US military's arrest of people is a divine soldier, and if they take people away, they will be evacuated from the ground, which makes people very speechless. In fact, the intelligence of the US military did not estimate the ground situation in Mogadishu at all, the local roads are very narrow, even if large vehicles can drive into the city, the other side as long as they put some obstacles can not drive out.
The actual situation is that the US military airborne landing was successful, people were also arrested, and the car was also on, but it could not be rushed out.
At this time, the militia in Mogadishu was blown up: the Yankees arrived at our turf, captured our men, and wanted to leave in a big way? Not so easy!
On the evening of October 3, 160 U.S. special forces were under siege by about 6,000 local militiamen, and more troublingly, the U.S. military could not tell who was civilian and who was armed.
Destroyed U.S. Black Hawk helicopter
Maybe one second a local citizen and the U.S. Army Hummer rubbed shoulders, and the next second the other side pulled out an AK-47 and swept wildly. In the chaos, in the windows, in the doorways, on street corners, and even under the skirts of women, there were people shooting or firing rockets at the U.S. military everywhere, and american soldiers became the street rats that everyone shouted and beat.
The "Hummer" is not an armored vehicle, the AK-47 bullet can easily penetrate the steel plate of the vehicle, once the vehicle is blocked by roadblocks, the US troops on the vehicle will become the target of concentrated fire strafing by the Somali militia, which is also a reason why the US military suffered particularly heavy casualties in this battle.
Due to the chaos in the whole city, the US special forces, which were divided into several routes according to the plan, were now in an unfavorable situation of fighting for their own sake, and the action plan formulated in advance was completely wasted, and the US troops in the command headquarters were anxious, and then they thought of sending helicopters to rescue them.
If the U.S. military's plan of action is a failure, the operations command and intelligence can only score a negative score, because they did not expect the Somali militia to be equipped with RPG rocket launchers.
The Black Hawk helicopter is not a steel bone, just a rocket can make it blossom in the air. Therefore, the 5 "Black Hawks" dispatched by the US military were shot down 2, and 3 were beaten to pieces, and they could only flee back to the base with a sway.
At nightfall on October 3, the U.S. military could have barely broken through with the night, but because the previous U.S. military commander did not expect that the operation would drag until night, only a set of night vision instruments were equipped with the action team, and the U.S. military became blind like the local militia, but the Somali militia continued to ambush the U.S. army by taking advantage of the familiar terrain.
At this time, electronic warfare, information warfare, combat management, and the lofty concepts of the US military are all useless, and the war model seems to have returned to the Period of World War II 50 years ago.
Late on the night of October 3, as the casualties of the operative forces grew, the U.S. military sent another 150 Pakistani and Malaysian soldiers to Mogadishu in 21 trucks to rescue them, and finally rescued them in the early morning of the next day.
Of the first 160 U.S. soldiers who finally took part in the battle, 19 were killed, 73 were wounded and 1 captured, accounting for 58% of the total, and the Pakistani and Malaysian peacekeepers who followed up were killed 2 and 9 wounded, and 2 Black Hawks and several trucks were destroyed and suffered heavy losses.
The next day, when the Somali militia dragged the bodies of the fallen American troops to the streets for public display, the prestige of the Clinton administration and the international image of the United States fell to the bottom, and the "world's first power" was so humiliated by an armed force that could not even be considered a regular army, which was also the first time in the world.
Destroyed U.S. armored vehicles
Later, in order to exchange the captured soldiers, the U.S. government had to negotiate with Aidid and release all the captured people.
Tens of thousands of troops were dispatched, and $2 billion was spent, and as a result, the Somali civil war not only did not subside, but also sent more than a dozen coffins to the Americans, which made the US government, which thought it could make a big profit, lose to the grandmother's family.
On October 7, 1993, then-US President Bill Clinton announced that all troops would be withdrawn from Somalia, marking a complete failure of the United Nations peacekeeping operation in Somalia.
Chairman Mao told us: The more you fear an American, the more fierce he becomes, and he is not afraid of him
After the Vietnam War, the United States successfully intervened in other countries twice, and once suffered a fiasco, which shows that the United States has several obvious weaknesses:
First, arrogance. The US military always has advanced weapons and equipment, and feels that its reconnaissance means can grasp everything, so it does not take the local people's feelings and geographical interests seriously, wantonly hurts and insults the people of other countries, and makes enemies everywhere, and the intelligence work and battle plan are very weak, so when the battle occurs, it is full of foreign affairs;
Second, interests come first, and gains and losses are always calculated when wars occur. The big capitalists and big politicians who hold power in the United States always regard the pursuit of illegal and immoral interests as the main purpose of waging foreign wars, so when the war is prolonged, resulting in visible losses greater than the profits available, they will do everything possible to seek to withdraw.
Because the UNITED States' foreign interference is unpopular, politicians are also worried that the domestic people will oppose it after the casualties expand, so the US military is always afraid of the dead, afraid of losing large equipment, and once the US military hurts, they are not willing to fight again;
Anti-war demonstrations in the United States
Third, we are particularly afraid of people's war. Because of the perpetually selfish nature of the imperialists, what they fear most is the protracted and complicated war, which will jeopardize their rule in their own country.
Therefore, the US imperialists always find ways to "localize" the war, and realize their despicable interests by creating divisions and contradictions in the local area, supporting one faction and cracking down on the cunning means of the other faction.
Therefore, even if the people do not really fight them, as long as we unite and form a posture of determination to fight imperialism to the end, we can make their superficial bluff appear in its original form.
When it comes to foreign intervention, the United States always calculates more than others: economic costs, domestic stability, international influence, military morale... This led to its growing weaknesses, and it increasingly hoped that other allies would act as a substitute for him as a ghost and cannon fodder.
However, now that the shameless tricks of the United States have been recognized by other countries, there are only a few countries that are really willing to die for it, and they are obsessed with maintaining their hegemonism through force and intimidation, and this illusion is about to be shattered.
Chairman Mao had already seen through the false mask and weak nature of US imperialism in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, so he firmly encouraged the people of the whole country to say: "Americans, the more you fear him, the more fierce he is, and he is not afraid of him. ”
In the final analysis, the United States and its Western allies wantonly carry out military intimidation, threats of force, and economic plunder throughout the world, creating international tensions, and their actions are unpopular, opposed and spurned by the people of the world, and will one day go bankrupt.
New China has been founded for 73 years, and now new China's comprehensive strength has taken a qualitative leap compared with the period of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and what is more beneficial to us is the unstoppable desire and trend of the people of the world in pursuing peace, development, and stability.
Our actions of safeguarding national unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity and defending the interests of the people are just and upright, and we will surely win victory in the struggle against the imperialists and their lackeys!
The final victory must belong to us!