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Show . ...,!.... Msairipnett Vsann IHIciDirime MlL-LLNm.M,u .ll.........l.-.llii...i...fe y:JL ,,mm,mmmBS,m,m ..iW. , ,,,,, , l ,L UWl-UM Again, first casualty is the truth Once more we open the purple testament of bleeding war. Once more we are closing the gaps in Ronald Reagan's foreign policy with our American dead. And once more a wise saying from a World War I statesman is painfully apt: "In war, the first casualty is always the truth." The words hang in the air like a ghostly dagger as we watch the coffins shrouded in Old Glory lined up in the bleak hangar at Dover Air Base. A scholarly friend, watching the TV news with me, recalls a line from -he thinks Herodotus. A line to the effect that truth always arrives late, by limping messenger. Both these wise sayings should be borne in mind as we note the opinion polls. Up, up goes the popularity of this president who believes our military might can scare the world into doing his bidding. He told us he was keeping the peace in Lebanon with a thousand young Marines. And, with a righteousness righteous-ness that stirred memories of Nixon's incursions into Cambodia, he assured us that he was protecting our national security by sending an invasion force of 6,000 to the tiny island of Grenada. Someday maybe not tomorrow, but . surely before the next election the limping messenger will arrive with the truth. The jingoists may not believe it, but the mothers of dead Marines surely will. What the president's belligerent stance reveals, in historian Ronald Steel's words, is "a militarized administration obsessed with force and more than a little trigger-happy." The implications of that statement are chilling. Now, it is doubtless true that the island of Grenada was run by "leftist thugs." It may also be true that Cuba was planning to annex it, with covert aid from the Soviets. But if President Kennedy could manage with shrewd diplomacy and quiet threats to force the Russians to remove their missiles from Cuba, surely the same technique could have dislodged the Cubans, their arsenal and their advisers from Grenada. If a troubled citizen examines all sides of this Grenadian adventure, small and nagging doubts become' cause for outrage. If the administration administra-tion was carrying out an honorable duty in this invasion, why did the White House instruct the Pentagon to bar the press? Could it be that the cold facts were at variance with his stated reasons for the U.S. attack? Did our citizens really need military protection? protec-tion? Now it is revealed (in The New York Times) that both Cuba and Grenada! sent urgent messages to our State Department saying that our citizens; particularly the 1,000 medical students were in no danger. The airport remained open, and Americans departing depart-ing the day before the invasion were in no way hindered. Listening to TV's man-in-the-street interviews, and the talk shows that invite viewers to phone in their sentiments, it's clear that President; Reagan has at the moment a constituency consti-tuency that admires his belligerence. ! It is this constituency the hard-right hard-right that regards any questioning of j the administration's policy as treason. It is probably useless, with truth still! limping painfully home, to say that there's a higher patriotism that has' nothing to do with rattling sabers or; crying "Nuke 'em!' as another battalion of young Marines leaves for? another rendezvous with death. Oh, if ; only the truth would hurry! 1983 Harriet Van Home; Distributed by Special Features' Syndication Sales |