When USA invaded Panama, I was still in Tokyo, but I knew a number of Americans (many of them liberals) due to my line of work then (teaching & translating). I was disheartened to see that none of them seemed to be shocked or even disturbed by the (then) unprecedented action taken by the US government: indicting a foreign head of state and invading a country on that pretext. This was not even a case of invoking the doctrine of "universal jurisdiction" -- rather, a clearly extraterritorial application of US laws concerning drug trafficking! Imperialism clearly stupefies the minds of its domestic victims -- most Americans -- who come to accept the exercise of power by the imperial government, neither cynically nor cravenly -- rather, _just like that, as a fact of life_.
BTW, it is noteworthy that Human Rights Watch called the Guillermo Endara administration installed by the US government through its invasion of Panama "democratically-elected": "The ouster of General Manuel Noriega in December 1989 and the installation of the democratically-elected coalition government of President Guillermo Endara brought high hopes in Panama that a long period of disrespect for law and the civil rights of the Panamanian people had come to an end" (@ <http://www.hrw.org/reports/1991/panama/>). A revealing definition of democracy. -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>