Rebuilding Must Start Now

The surrender of Gen. Manuel A. Noriega marks for President Bush a successful, even a triumphant, achievement resulting from the U.S. military intervention in Panama. But celebrating because the chief villain of the Panamanian crisis has given up with no further bloodshed does not mean the drama has ended. This is just an intermission between acts.

Let there be no doubt that Noriega is a genuine villain. He may or may not be the caricature of evil (complete with red underwear and voodoo dolls) that some propagandists in the Pentagon portrayed at the height of the manhunt for him. But he’s a thoroughly bad actor who may have murdered political opponents with his own hands and ordered the deaths of many more. He certainly stole millions of dollars from a small nation that could scarcely afford it and encouraged the spread of corruption throughout his government. He may also have aided and abetted the illegal drug traffickers who have plagued the United States with their filthy products. With Noriega in jail, Panama is a far better place and the United States can rest a little easier.

But that said, Americans must not forget what it cost to nab this accused international criminal. The deaths of 23 U.S. servicemen, and the wounding of 200 more, is painful enough. But imagine how a nation of only 2 million people must feel having suffered almost 600 deaths (half of them civilians) in the course of the brief but intense war that toppled Noriega. There may literally be no Panamanian who does not know someone among the nation’s dead, or among the thousands of innocent victims injured and displaced.

That is one reason that the United States must not succumb to the understandable temptation to brush itself off with a satisfied air and walk away from Panama looking for another challenge. This country still owes a great moral obligation to Panama for what has happened--and not just for the destruction wrought by U.S. firepower in the invasion.

Start with the fact that Noriega was a Frankenstein’s monster at least partly created by the United States. Noriega and his defense attorneys will certainly bring that up at every turn as the former dictator faces trial in Florida on a variety of charges stemming from his alleged links to international drug traffickers. The legal process is sure to be prolonged, complicated and perhaps even embarrassing to some of the U.S. government agencies, like the CIA and Drug Enforcement Administration, that were on cozy terms with Noriega for far too long.

Add to this the fact that Panama’s government and economy have been utterly devastated by the brief war and the two years of U.S. economic sanctions that preceded it. From the poor barrios that were destroyed by U.S. bombs and gunfire to the rich boutiques that were looted in the invasion’s chaotic aftermath, there are now Panamanians who expect the United States to fix everything that is wrong in Panama.

Estimates of the cost of rebuilding run into billions of dollars. U.S. taxpayers may not be able to pay all of that bill, but if they don’t pay a good part of it, U.S. relations with Panama--and the rest of Latin America--could be poisoned for years to come.

But the President’s laudable goal of restoring democracy in Panama will require more than a fat checkbook. It will also require a careful, patient effort to get the new government of President Guillermo Endara operating independently as soon as possible. That means pulling U.S. combat troops out of Panama and replacing them with the civil affairs experts, Peace Corps volunteers and other civilian specialists who can help rebuild Panama without creating dependence on the United States in a weakened country. It will be a long process, and it must start now.