The Trillion Dollar War

[torridjoe 0]

As a follow up on this do you have a good link that shows this? I have looked but cannot find one. As I recall the US was doing everything they could to provoke Noriaga, harsh economic sanctions, military maneuvers, threatening actions in the canal zone etc. Noriaga then screwed up and said "A state of war exists between the US and Panama." (Not that I mean that as an exact quote but a paraphrase.) The US then put the spin machine into high gear and claimed it was an actual war declaration where Noriaga actually meant it as a criticism of US actions. If you have a link to a Panamanian ambassador delivering an actual declaration of war or something similar that would be much appreciated.

 

Turns out it wasn't even Noriega, which is why it threw me off. The source I had said Parliament had declared a state of war. The opposition general, who had the authority of Parliament, was the one who said US actions had "created a state of war in Panama." That was then reported beyond the facts by US media.

 

So if you want to throw Panama in there, I'll give you that one. So the only time before Iraq that we'd invaded a country unprovoked, a Bush was also in office.

[Stumpnov 0]

It does not qualify in Haiti and Somalia because we acted as part of the international community with their approval. Grenada was in the midst of a coup. We entered to retrieve med students and then go home.

If you had clearly stated that your intent was to limit this discussion to invasions outside of UN approval this would have been a shorter discussion. Grenada was still on invasion based on trumped up dangers to Americans but in reality to stop a communist/socialist coup.

 

Apologies for the Noriaga mis-quote, that explains why I was having difficulty as well.

 

So if you want to throw Panama in there, I'll give you that one. So the only time before Iraq that we'd invaded a country unprovoked, a Bush was also in office.

Providing you limit the discussion to post-1980

[torridjoe 0]

If you had clearly stated that your intent was to limit this discussion to invasions outside of UN approval this would have been a shorter discussion. Grenada was still on invasion based on trumped up dangers to Americans but in reality to stop a communist/socialist coup.

 

Apologies for the Noriaga mis-quote, that explains why I was having difficulty as well.

Providing you limit the discussion to post-1980

 

If you've got the blessings of the international community, I think it's pretty obvious it's a different situation, because then it's not a US invasion.