remembering panama

16 years ago today was the beginning of Operation Just Cause.



I was nine years old and in the fourth grade. I was too distracted with pirate ship Legos and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figures to pay attention to world affairs. 1989 was a big year with the fall of the Berlin Wall occuring a month before the Panama invasion.

I vaguely remember Panama, thinking "That Noriega guy is bad. We should get him!"

Noriega was soon replaced by an even greater enemy of America the very next year--the evil Saddam Hussein! We called him Saddam Insane at school.

If I'm not mistaken Panama was the first U.S. military adventure that was labeled an "operation". It sounds friendly and more altruistic than saying "war" or "invasion". And when when it's a "Just Cause" how are you going to argue with that? (Who cares if hundreds of civilians died and thousands of other were injured)

It was also the first time the U.S. military was used as a global police force simply to capture one man who was--get this--responsible for violating U.S. drug laws in a foreign country! Now Noriega resides in a Florida prison where he has found Jesus--actually a fellow prisoner named Jesús.

My theory is that Bush I had to get rid of Noriega to prevent the Panamanian president from squealing about his activities laundering drug money to fund the Contras during the 1980s. Bush I put Noriega on the CIA payroll back in the day. He was then disposed of when he no longer suited our needs just like Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.

Fast forward to 2012...the U.S. will overthrow Hamad Karzai and imprison him in Attica for running a global heroin trade from Afghanistan.

Narcotics make the world go round.