US Recalls 'Just Say No' Strategy for Dictators, Ignores Its Own Role
According to the NY Times Politics piece on Trump’s Venezuela policy, the 1989 invasion of Panama to remove Manuel Noriega is a key precedent. They meticulously detail the 'heavy-metal' tactics. What they don't bother with is how Noriega, a brutal dictator, was on the CIA's payroll since 1968, a favored intelligence asset who facilitated drug trafficking and arms dealing under successive US
administrations. Richard Nixon, for example, signed off on Noriega receiving $50,000 annually from the CIA after 1971, according to declassified documents, ensuring his loyalty while he consolidated power. So, the US government funded Noriega, benefited from his despotism for decades, and then, when he became a political liability, invaded to remove him. One might almost wonder if creating the
'bad guy' for later heroic intervention isn't a long-standing US foreign policy strategy. The 'fall of a dictator' is less about justice and more about a recalibration of imperial interests. How many times must the US 'liberate' a country from a monster it helped create?