The truth behind US' Operation Just Cause in Panama [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

The truth behind US' Operation Just Cause in Panama


The more history that can be exhumed, the harder it will be for the US to hide behind noble intentions in the future.

31 Jan 2016 10:45 GMT


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General Colin Powell, centre, head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff during the operation, tours the bombed courtyard of the Panamanian Defense Force Comandancia in Panama City (Getty)
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Belen Fernandez

On January 31, 1990, the US invasion of Panama - dubbed Operation Just Cause - officially came to a close. While the US military has consistently lowballed the Panamanian death count of the short-lived affair, other observers have put the number of fatalities at several thousand.

As media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) noted at the time, Just Cause saw the impoverished Panama City neighbourhood of El Chorillo pulverised to the point of being referred to by ambulance drivers as "Little Hiroshima". In other words, no surgical strikes here.

Indeed, the foray into Panama was the largest US combat operation since the Vietnam War. The US government trotted out various noble justifications for the operation, such as improving the lot of the Panamanians by hauling their dictator, General Manuel Noriega, off to the US to face drug trafficking charges.

This was the same Noriega, of course, who had for years been a US favourite, occupying a prominent position on the CIA's payroll despite common knowledge of his involvement in the international drug trade.

A whole lot of birds

In typical fashion, the gringos managed to kill a whole lot of birds with the Just Cause stone. In addition to capturing Noriega - who was driven out of his refuge at the Vatican embassy in Panama by US troops blasting rock music in the direction of the compound - the US also reasserted its power in the area and conducted a trial run of military equipment for upcoming action in the Middle East.

As for the human beings killed by the same stone, Panama is now launching a truth commission to determine just what happened 26 years ago.

More:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/01/truth-operation-panama-160131085323562.html