Foray for Panama’s Democracy Wounds Constitution Here : Panama: Only Congress has the power ‘to declare war.’ But most members weren’t even informed until the action had begun.

The Bush Administration’s invasion of Panama on Wednesday morning was illegal, unwarranted and cynical.

Despite the applause from Democrats and Republicans alike, some basic facts need to be remembered.

The United States has a Constitution, and that Constitution gives Congress the sole power “to declare war” and “make rules concerning captures on land and water.” Congress did not declare war against Panama--most members weren’t even informed until after the invasion had begun.

As a justification for the invasion, Bush cited Gen. Manuel A. Noriega’s declaration that “a state of war” exists between Panama and the United States. But Bush himself declined to ask Congress to declare war; he just went ahead and invaded on his own. This is not how our constitutional system was designed to work.

Bush said another reason for the invasion--and it was an invasion, despite the euphemisms floating around Washington--was the “imminent danger to 35,000 American citizens” in Panama. This was hardly demonstrated by the facts. A U.S. Marine was killed over the weekend by Panamanian forces, but the official U.S. version of the incident is dubious. The Marine, the Administration said, was unarmed and somehow got lost near Panamanian military headquarters. The Panamanians said the Marine, with three other American officers, was armed and had opened fire.

In any event, that particular incident does not demonstrate that 35,000 Americans are in “imminent danger.” But it gave the Administration a pretext for an invasion that had been planned for at least three months, as CIA Director William H. Webster acknowledged in a conversation with Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.). (Eager to come up with a better rationale, Bush later added that the Administration had received an unidentified and unconfirmed intelligence report alleging that Noriega was considering launching an urban commando assault on American citizens in Panama.)

Bush also claimed that he wanted to “protect the integrity of the Panama Canal Treaty” when, in fact, he wanted to subvert it. Under the treaty, Panama is to appoint the canal commissioner, but the appointment has previously been made by Washington. Bush clearly did not want Noriega to be able to install someone hostile to the United States, so he circumvented the problem by getting rid of Noriega. You can bet the new president of Panama will appoint a commissioner more to Washington’s liking.

Hypocrisy rules the Bush Administration. While it condemns Noriega’s dictatorship, it cozies up to the dictators in China who killed thousand of students in Beijing’s Tian An Men Square in June. Why the double standard?

Noriega is no saint. But there is no lack of unsavory governments in the world. Does the United States have a right to invade them all? Who conferred that right on our government?

The obsession with Noriega is particularly ironic, because he carried Washington’s water for 30 years. He was paid by the CIA--during the time that George Bush was its director--to finger leftists in Central America. One U.S. Administration after another winked at his excesses. But when Noriega was no longer needed, it became politically expedient for the U.S. government to overthrow him.

For Bush, as for Ronald Reagan before him, Noriega represented an easy target, a foreign devil to oppose forcefully and thus score domestic political points. Bush’s political need for a foreign-policy triumph has been especially acute because critics have branded him timid. The invasion was his answer, a handy way to flex his muscles.

While this is Bush’s blunder, it is also the Democrats’. They allowed the Administration to dilute the ban against assassinating foreign leaders, they banged the drums for intervention, they permitted Bush to bypass constitutional channels and they supported him after the fact. Within hours of the invasion, Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) was on television pledging Democratic support for the President.

Most Democrats share the blame for this illegal invasion, which has needlessly cost the lives of American soldiers and Panamanian civilians. And it has exacted a greater toll, for it has struck another blow against democratic, constitutional government in the United States.