Panama Invasion

Twenty years ago today, 27,000 something U.S. troops invaded Panama City and deposed the country's military leader Manuel Noriega, making what seems like a bogus claim that the lives of Americans living in Panama were at risk and a more veritable claim that Noriega was sympathetic to - and enriching himself from - drug traffickers.

This came after Noriega was on the CIA payroll, as a narco-trafficking informant, the decade beforehand.

In any event, troops swarmed through Panama City, cornered Noriega in the Vatican embassy, and blasted rock music to try to get the guy to come out. He eventually did, but only after Panamanians demonstrated outside demanding that he surrender.

A few dozen American soldiers were killed and - while the estimates vary - I'm going with the ones that say a few thousand Panamanians died.

When I was in Spain, in 2004 and 2005, when Iraq was really bad and when the U.S. had just re-elected Bush, I could hardly get through 3 minutes of a conversation with a Spaniard without them asking some question like, "so what did you use to get that Iraqi blood off your hands?" Anti-Americanism was fashionable, consistent and I thought, when it came to Iraq, warranted. That doesn't mean I didn't get sick of it.

So earlier this month, when I was waiting in Florida for my connecting flight to Panama, I was wondering if I'd get the same sort of flack from the Panamanians. Would they be denouncing American imperialism like European college students were so fond of doing? After all, Panamanians and a number of their neighbors had actually experienced it first hand.

So far, despite my prodding, they've been welcoming and friendly, eager to know more about me and the U.S. and appear to be unconcerned about this invasion. "We've got collective amnesia," one Panamanian woman named Ursula told me.

A fellow English teacher at Ingles Tec told me last night that, all in all, most Panamanians are happy the U.S. did what it did. Noriega was a dictator, he said, and if you spoke out against him you'd loose your job or worse. He had nullified the results of an election, earlier that year, which had his opponent soundly defeating him and it was time, the teacher said, for a new leader.