Just Cause

“The Old Gringo,” Carlos Fuentes’ book about the terminal period in the life of Ambrose Bierce, a journalist for William Randolph Hearst some 80 years ago, contains a passage which is shocking in the similarity to President Bush’s statement on the rationale for Operation Just Cause in Panama:

“I did it to save lives.” Bierce is reflecting on Mexico: “This land . . . He (Bierce) had never seen it before; he had attacked it by orders of his boss Hearst, who had enormous investments in ranches and other property and feared the Revolution; but he couldn’t say, Go protect my property, he had to say, Go protect our lives, there are North American citizens in danger, intervene!”

PAUL MORANDA

Orange