Word: noriega
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...impossible to tell whether the invasion would end up more like Viet Nam or more like Grenada. Some 24,000 U.S. troops had quickly taken command of most of Panama and overwhelmed organized resistance by the Panama Defense Forces, Noriega's combination army and police. But Noriega got away and was thought to be hiding in the forests or even in the sprawling capital city; the U.S. offered a $1 million reward for information leading to his capture...
American troops faced a tough battle to restore order in Panama City, where looters, some reportedly shouting, "Viva Bush!" ransacked stores and homes and where Noriega's misnamed Dignity Battalions, a paramilitary force, were putting up a street-to-street fight. Noriega's loyalists, apparently at his direction, staged hit-and-run attacks. On Friday, two days after American military commanders began declaring victory, they fired shells at the headquarters of the U.S. Southern Command. The Pentagon admitted that its forces had encountered stiffer resistance than expected, and Bush ordered an additional 2,000 troops to Panama as reinforcements. Meanwhile...
...other hand, most of the world signaled its willingness to adapt to the U.S. action -- presuming it was successful. At home both parties in Congress generally applauded the effort to get rid of the egregious Noriega. "At last," said Wisconsin Democrat Les Aspin, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Latin American nations issued formal condemnations of the intervention, but one did not have to read very far between the lines to detect a sigh of relief that the brutal Panamanian dictator had got his comeuppance. The 32-member Organization of American States "regretted," but did not quite condemn...
...minimum Washington will have to rebuild a Panamanian economy that American sanctions against Noriega have shattered. Unemployment in Panama has passed 20% and the banking system is a shambles, scarcely an environment conducive to stable democracy. Rebuilding could take years and put a new strain on a U.S. budget already heavily in deficit...
That did not sound much like the President who was roundly denounced as a wimp as recently as October, when the U.S. stood aside as a Panamanian coup against Noriega failed and the dictator executed its leaders. But the October episode aside, Bush has been displaying a new vigor and assurance in foreign policy for months now. The Panama invasion only pointed it up. "I think there are an awful lot of people out there who may have had some erroneous impressions of the President who had them dramatically changed in the last several weeks or so," says House Republican...