From Justin Raimondo, at antiwar.com:
In The Mouse That Roared, a 1955 satirical novel by Leonard Wibberly, the Duchy of Grand Fenwick – a mythical three-by-five mile nation between Switzerland and France – declares war against the United States. This is done not because Princess Gloriana, the absolute ruler, and Tully Bascomb, commander of its “army” outfitted with the latest in crossbows – expects to defeat the mighty superpower, but precisely because they expect to lose. While this may seem odd, the logic behind Grand Fenwick’s war aims is impeccable, given the history of World War II and its aftermath, in which the US rebuilt the defeated Axis powers and poured in foreign aid via the Marshall Plan. The Duchy is broke, largely because its single export, Grand Fenwick wine, has been duplicated by an American winery that markets its product under the name “Grand Enwick.” The US State Department ignores the Duchy’s protests, and so the “invasion” is launched with the hope that Grand Fenwick’s defeat will be both imminent and profitable.
The plan doesn’t work out quite as intended, however: through a series of circumstances Wibberly makes all too believable, the Grand Fenwickian army wins the war, and a number of unintended – and hilarious – consequences follow.
The Mouse That Roared is full of foreign policy lessons for today – the plight of small nations, how domestic politics determines foreign policy, and, most of all, how a combination of US policymakers’ arrogance and incompetence has made the US both an international laughingstock and a loose cannon in a volatile world. I couldn’t help but think of Wibberly’s little masterpiece upon reading the news that the Obama administration has imposed new sanctions on Venezuela, declaring it to be “an extraordinary threat to the national security of the United States.” Piling absurdity atop hyperbole, the executive order issued by President Obama solemnly declares this “threat” to be a “national emergency.”
Man the barricades! Guard the border! Venezuela’s Red Army is at the gates!
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2015/03/12/is-venezuela-really-a-threat-to-us-national-security/
To continue reading: Is Venezuela Really a Threat?
