Castro's Folly, Mornng Research...'Get to the Choppa!'

A little morning research for Castro's Folly:

Ah, Latin American during the Cold War, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatamala, Honduras....aye gringo!

What a mess. Someone ironically, at least to me since I grew up in a home where Dad proclaimed, 'El Salvador is Spanish for Vietnam', the Reagan Administration made Latin America better. By prosecuting various proxy wars, they wore down the communists and forced elections whereby all four of the above mentioned nations had democratically elected governments by 1990.

Hundreds of thousands were killed in a conflict in which the U.S. backed military death squads against communist insurgents.

I'm proud to say my own family was up to its armpits in the mess:

 It was under Stroock's command that an embassy staff member told a visiting religious delegation--"I'm tired of all these lesbian nuns coming down to Guatemala." It was Stroock who said, a week after I was abducted, before any embassy member had interviewed me, "Her story as told is not accurate." It was Stroock who told the State Department that my motives were questionable, that I had perhaps staged my own abduction to secure a cut-off of US aid to the Guatemalan army. Yet it is Stroock to whom the US government gives the report--a report so private that even I cannot see it.

Proud Wyoming man and friend to Dick Cheney (NTTAWWT).

I talked to him on teh phone once, in late 2000 back in my Virginia days. Asked if he could help get me some work in the Bush White House. He said to send him my CV. I never heard back from him.

Prick.

Anyway all this Latin American research and writing given me a craving for Mexican food (fiesta grande de los conquistador as it is known in Casa de Stroock) Eli Wallach movies, and 80's flicks with Central American guerrillas.

Come on, you know the one. Da-dum da-dum dum dum....repeat as necessary.

That battle sequence really is well done.

What a movie. Great action, lots of tension.

For me, anyway, Predator marks the transformation of Arnold Schwarzenegger from a a Golan-Globus type schlockmeister to a legit action star. I mean look at his other big Latin American themed movie:

Cool, but schlocky none-the-less.

'I eat green berets for breakfast...'

Hey, come to think of it, wouldn't an invasion of Cuba require a lot SF types? Maybe the CIA can hire a mercenary commando squad?

Heh.