George W. learned senseless war at feet of Poppy Bush

Last week we celebrated, mourned would be a better term, the 25th anniversary of Operation Just Cause, President George H.W. Bush's war against Panama to capture President Manuel Noriega. Bush the Elder claimed a glorious victory with only 20 dead GI's and about 500 combatants. While the US admitted several hundred civilians died as well, Human Rights Watch puts the civilian death toll in the thousands noting the US erased mention of massive bombing in the poor Panama City barrio El Chorrillo that wiped out 4,000 homes along with many of their residents.

It took just 14 days to capture Noriega, a secret CIA asset in the Cold War against Communist influence in Latin America. Manual made the mistake of running a little drug ring on the side so he had to go. What a better way to celebrate the collapse of the Soviet Union earlier in that momentous year of 1989 then by re-asserting American bully-boy might against a helpless target. With future Iraq war architect Dick Cheney serving as Bush Sr's Defense Secretary and Iraq war enabler Colin Powell his Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Operation Just Cause was an early training ground for Shock And Awe 14 years later.

And watching from the sidelines was a failed 43 year old oil executive using Poppy's money and influence to buy into the Texas Rangers to make the Big Leagues, figuratively as well as literally. The glow is easy conquest with thousands of deaths and no consequences was not lost on George the Son. He didn't just wake up on January 20, 2001, and decide to become a warmonger. He was just following a family tradition.