The Panama Deception

I watched this tape because of a term paper I was doing on the Panama invasion in 1989. I thought I had a good idea of the invasion, but this documentary showed what the biased news did not and was not allowed to show. After seeing the tape, I was enraged by the dirty back-room Realpolitik courtesy of Bush I and his henchmen. The comments by the Pentagon spokesman and military general were ironic when excellently juxtaposed with images that refuted their half-truths and deception. The documentary is not the kind you would ever see on the History Channel, but (perhaps for that reason) it is well worth watching. I am no history buff, but this 1 1/2 hour exposé was quick and done. You might understand why people in yet another corner of the world hate U.S. Americans after being enlightened and angered by _The Panama Deception._

The "Panama Deception" refers to acts and events that are classically typical in the history of this and other powerful governments throughout history. The U.S. administration in power during the period is known by informed people of all economic and political strata to be particularly cynical.

I notice a highly critical review of this film on this site is by a "19 year veteran of the army." While what this person says has some merit, I put little stock in the opinion of someone who is naive enough to join the army and is in such deep denial over the sins of government.

I applaud this film. Heck, it even won an Academy award - a stunning turn of events considering it's radical nature - that is, in your face truth.

First it must be stated that it is quite apparent that those involved in the production of this documentary have an agenda and that makes the documentary somewhat obviously biased. It also must be noted that, no matter what the reasons were for the invasion, the people of Panama are certainly no better (or worse) for the change in government and worse off because of the invasion. Whether Noriega was involved in drug-trafficking or not (I would tend to think most governments with large-scale drug production areas within their borders probably are, and Noriega is no exception), getting rid of Noriega was like shhoting a flea with a Howitzer: noisy, messy, expensive and ultimately futile overkill. A good piece of work so long as you understand that there is an agenda here. I suspect that if you put the governmental story on one side and this on the other, the truth would be somewhere between them, but closer to the documentary than the government.

It seems people are letting their politics decide their ratings. As a documentary, it's good but not outstanding. It's a fairly straight forward PBS or Frontline type documentary. It won an academy award because it was against not very strong competition. One was downright bland, about using music in films.

The first third of the doc is completely uncontroversial. It's a straight forward history of Panama, the canal, and how Noriega got into power.

The ones hating this doc, calling it paranoid, were themselves paranoid and downright hysterical, and bashing the film on flimsy pretexts. The film actually gives plenty of voices from the Bush administration. This includes a Pentagon spokesman and several generals.

And sometimes their outrage leads them to spout falsehoods. They claim the film says "The US Army used lasers to kill people." No, it says some weapons were laser guided, being tested in the field for the new time.

Claiming "There were mass graves" and "thousands dead." That's not even controversial. Every estimate is several thousand killed.

Claiming some of the experts should be better labeled. That might be the only criticism with any validity. Perhaps for a few, who are shown as authors or journalists. I went to the trouble of looking them up. Two were in academia, one a TV reporter, another a national radio reporter.

Although the film maker's bias tends to show through, this is probably the most thourough (I bet I spelled that wrong) account of the US invasion of Panama I have ever seen. I have already read volumes of books, all of which agree with what was expressed in this documentary (and the funny thing was, I wasn't specifically looking for that, either. I couldn't find any first-hand accounts that towed the US-government line).

I have two friends who served in Panama, and became very disillusioned after the things they were ordered to do. Although most people will never hear of this, much of what is discussed in this documentary is actually standard military practice all over the world. I'm not defending it, i'm not attacking it. I'm just stating it; shelling of civilians is somewhat of a game to many military men. Most of my male family members in the States are military guys, and there was a massive change in them after their tour of duty.

The funny thing is, I think this is a great documentary, and i'm further from the left than Reagan. But, you can't argue with the truth. A splendid look at how the truth gets shut out sometimes.