Operation Just Cause Case Study

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In the recent history, Panama was the scene for U.S. Operation “Just Cause,” which took place in December of 1989 under President George Bush Senior. The main objective of the operation was to remove Dictator Emanuel Noriega from office. Prior to Operation Just Cause, General Noriega had sided with the United States over the USSR during the Cold War as well as served as a CIA operative. In the 1980, Emanuel Noriega was linked to several large drug trafficking scandals. In 1986 President Ronald Reagan requested that General Noriega step down from office, Noriega refused. Later in 1988 there was an inter coup attempted to pull General Noriega from office, again it was unsuccessful. In October of 1989, there was a second coup attempt against…show more content…
By this time President George Bush Sr. was in office, although President Bush had worked with General Noriega when he was head of the CIA, pressure from the American people eventually persuaded him to take military action to remove General Noriega from power. Key members of the operation were the 75th Ranger Regiment and the 82nd Airborne Division; these units performed an airborne insertion to gain access to Panama, in total over 27,000-troops participated in the operation. The operation kicked off December 20th 1989 at 0100 against strategic civilian and military targets. Another not so well known fact, Operation Just Cause was the first Combat use of the new American helicopter, theAH-64 Apache. General Noriega knew the operation would soon take place and began to organize his personal army, the Panamanian Defense Force of 16,000 men. Noriega ultimately surrendered to U.S. Forces on 3 January only two weeks after the initial airborne assault, Operation Just Cause eventually ended on 31 January 1990, from start to finish the operation only lasted 42 days. There were twenty-three American casualties, an estimated 500 Panamanian Defense Forces causalities and an estimated 500 civilian causalities because of the operation…show more content…
Around four fifths of the population in Panama practice Catholicism (mapsoftheworld.com). Just behind Roman Catholicism, Christianity is the leading religion in Panama. “In the 20th Century the African Races of Bocas del Toro province, the immigrants of west Indies and other Indian tribes began practicing Protestantism, which can be compared to the Penticostal religion of the U.S.” (www.mapsoftheworld.com), Jewish and Muslim religions are also prevalent in Panama today as well. It is needless to say that you will have no issues finding a place of worship in Panama; you have your choice of Churches, synagogues, temples and other places of worship. All of these places of worship could make targeting difficult in the cities and rural areas. As we have seen in the recent Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) / Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) conflicts, places of worship are on the no strike list based on their functions. With the high emphasis on religion in Panama, this would offer a wide array of places to evade American

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