n life, a wife being harassed, and drug trafficking was equal to two hundred lives. In reality over four thousand lives were taken. Ideologically it was not war but defense. We were defending ourselves from Noriega and his drug trafficking. If action was not taken we would be overrun with drug and crime problems, more so than we already were.The contradictions were all done so that the President of the time could gain status among the people. For example, the reasons he used for the invasion was to protect American lives, to return Panama’s democracy, and to reduce the drug trafficking. In reality no American life was in danger, Panama never had democracy, and the drug trafficking doubled in a couple of years following the invasion. None of these was more evident than the other, although drug trafficking was the original reason exposed to the public. The focus of the invasion in private was only political, to enhance the Presidents image. Drug trafficking was only distracting the public from the truth.Although Bush gained many supporters in the United States, he gained more disgust and anger among other nations such as France where their media proclaimed a more accurate death toll and declared the whole operation a massacre. But this was more of a national fight than it was an international intimidation, unless it was directed toward the weaker countries. Overall this was nothing less than a political scheme to gain prestige among the American people....
