Wednesday, November 27, 1996
INTERVENTION:
Noriega only a front target in U.S. invasion of PanamaBy Michael
Osman
In the Nov. 22 Daily Bruin, Adam Ake wrote an article rebutting
the idea that the United States uses the propaganda of hate against
our enemies in battle. As examples, he cites our invasion of Panama
and our war with Iraq. His statements are false. We regularly
demonize the "new enemies," including drug-dealers, militia men and
terrorists (whose essential difference from the United States is
their inability to afford cruise missiles, which the United States
occasionally rains upon other countries). But instead of demonizing
entire countries, we now tend to demonize their leaders, and
obscure the fact that we’re slaughtering "innocent" people who
happen to follow the "evil" leader.
I want to clear up the misconceptions about the invasion of
Panama.
We supported Noriega for years, with the knowledge that he was a
thug and gangster. His record was, however, far more benign than
many other dictators that we support. Ake says that "Noriega and
his small minority of backers were the targets," but initially we
were his primary backers.
The problem was that Noriega got a little big for his britches,
so we decided that we did not want him in charge there anymore.
In addition, the U.S. invasion broke three types of
international law: the U.N. charter, the charter of the
Organization of American States (OAS), and the Panama Canal treaty.
This was not missed by the U.N. and the General Assembly
overwhelmingly condemned the invasion.
When Adam Ake says that "the Panamanian people as a whole …
generally supported the unilateral U.S. action" he probably refers
to the CBS poll citing that 90 percent of people polled favored the
invasion. I feel that this poll is non-representative of the people
for the following reasons:
1. Panamanian estimates of dead are 2,000 to 3,000 people,
mostly civilians (unlike the U.S. estimates of roughly 600
dead).
2. Twenty-three percent of Panamanians claimed to have had a
close relative or loved one killed or wounded.
3. The newly installed leader, Colonel Eduardo Hassan was a
dictator who "directed the most brutal repression of peaceful
demonstrations in Panamanian history … [in what was known as
‘Black Friday’" (source: Americas Watch human rights
organization).
4. The new government used the chaos as a chance to round up and
imprison or kill political dissidents. (U.S. troops were used in
the arrest of many of them  one might check out the
documentary "Panama Deception.")
So our focus of hatred may have been Manuel Noriega, but our
target of acquisition was Panama itself.