No or failed American intervention in Grenada

Given the claimed secrecy of the US invasion what if Commonwealth troops had just ben sent to Grenada? Could they have clashed?

If their instructions are to secure the sovereignty of the Commonwealth island they would be acting properly under international law were they to defend Grenada by force of arms in the name of the Head of State.
 
Given the claimed secrecy of the US invasion what if Commonwealth troops had just ben sent to Grenada? Could they have clashed?

If their instructions are to secure the sovereignty of the Commonwealth island they would be acting properly under international law were they to defend Grenada by force of arms in the name of the Head of State.

Are you saying that it's legally relevant whether both the invading and invaded countries are part of the Commonwealth? I don't know if that's true. AFAIK, the Commonwealth is simply an international organization that sovereign nations choose to join, like the OAS. It doesn't establish any formal jurisdiction of one nation over another. They're not all even required to have the same head of state, and in fact, most are republics.

Everything else being equal, Australia invading Fiji(Commonwealth) would be no different, legally speaking, from Australia invading East Timor(non-Commonwealth). It might create considerably more political friction(because Commonwealth nations are thought to have a special obligation to get along), but that would be about it.

I'm open to correction on this.
 

Driftless

Donor
Ultimately, if the US does commit to take over, it will...

However, if the US medical students are injured or killed during the operation, it looks bad, as that was a leading cause for the action for public consumption. For some voters, the students being hurt will be sufficient justification for the invasion, for other voters, Pres. Reagan will appear as a trigger-happy diplomatic knucklehead (Grenada comes a few days after the devastating bombing attack on the Marine barracks in Beirut)

Friendly foreign nationals(Brits?) get hurt, it looks bad - especially to your best ally

If the US military takes a notably higher level of casualties, it looks bad. Helicopter crashes, the Rangers get shot up worse at the airport.
 
My scenario is that the Head of State of Grenada is the Queen of Grenada, who is coincidentally Queen of Britain etc. As such she can call upon her other forces in other Commonwealth states, in which she is head of state, to assist her to secure her realm (i.e. Grenada). Assuming that they do so and are unaware of the secret invasion plan of the United States (which after all is secret) and are charged with securing Grenada. What might happen if they found themselves attacked by a US invasion?

Let us imagine a task force of Brigade size made up of British and certain West Indian army units with support from the Royal Navy and other naval vessels of the same sources. Thus the US troops are meeting a professional infantry brigade not the alleged bunch of armed waiters. Being secret the first thing the Commonwealth Brigade in Grenada knows is that it is being assaulted by an armed force with no warning. I might point out that the Commonwealth Brigade will not give the proverbial doo dah of the monkey about US voters. Oh, and the Commonwealth Brigade have all their watches set to the same time zone (inside joke).
 
My scenario is that the Head of State of Grenada is the Queen of Grenada, who is coincidentally Queen of Britain etc. As such she can call upon her other forces in other Commonwealth states, in which she is head of state, to assist her to secure her realm (i.e. Grenada). Assuming that they do so and are unaware of the secret invasion plan of the United States (which after all is secret) and are charged with securing Grenada. What might happen if they found themselves attacked by a US invasion?

Let us imagine a task force of Brigade size made up of British and certain West Indian army units with support from the Royal Navy and other naval vessels of the same sources. Thus the US troops are meeting a professional infantry brigade not the alleged bunch of armed waiters. Being secret the first thing the Commonwealth Brigade in Grenada knows is that it is being assaulted by an armed force with no warning. I might point out that the Commonwealth Brigade will not give the proverbial doo dah of the monkey about US voters. Oh, and the Commonwealth Brigade have all their watches set to the same time zone (inside joke).

Those West Indian units (from Jamaica, Barbados, and many smaller states) were on the side of the United States, and were there in part so the United States would not look so bad to the international community and so Governor-General Paul Scoon could justify his actions in requesting assistance in dealing with the crisis in Grenada.

It doesn't make sense that coincidentally, both the United States and Britain are developing secret plans for an invasion of Grenada which also involve West Indian nations.
 
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