World Boss History Reason #10: Another Illegal Invasion
The war in Iraq wasn’t the first time our country invaded a sovereign nation to take down its leader. People tend to forget that we did the same thing in Panama in 1989. And, just like when we invaded Iraq, a Bush was in the White House and a man named Dick Cheney was with him.
In 1989, President George H.W. Bush and then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney sent 300 aircraft and more than 50,000 troops into Panama-to get one man. Worst of all, the Army barred the Red Cross and the press from entering Panama City for days after the invasion. That meant no one could say accurately just how many people died in the fighting. Low estimates are in the hundreds, but most independent observers say thousands of people died.
Again, allow me to recap: Thousands of people died so that we could take out a crook we put in power. If that isn’t how an empire acts, I don’t know what is.
Panama: A Press Rehearsal for Iraq
The way the press covered our invasion of Panama was no less shameful than the way it treated Gary Webb. As with our invasion of Iraq in 2003, journalists beat the war drums for the first Bush Administration as our armed forces massed to take down Noriega. They trotted out stories of Noriega’s villainy, his drug running, and his contempt for democracy. A visibly riled-up Dan Rather declared Noriega to be, “at the top of the list of the world’s drug thieves and scums.” But Rather and his cohorts in the media never bothered to mention that our own government helped him accomplish many of his misdeeds.
The press is supposed to watchdog the government. Unfortunately, it has clearly forgotten that duty. It is so enmeshed in Washington’s power structure now, it acts more like an official state mouthpiece than an independent observer.
NEXT: Scrub the CIA
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