FORT BENNING, Ga., (Dec. 17, 2014) -- Twenty-five years ago this week, the armed forces of the United States went to war with one man.
Indicted in United States court on drug trafficking and other charges, "maximum leader" Manuel Noriega, dictator of Panama, became the target of a well-planned, joint services strike beginning Dec. 20, 1989.
For many reasons, the resulting Operation Just Cause set a new standard for military operations for the United States.
After years of worsening relations with Noriega and his increasingly oppressive military and political regime and the United States, President George Herbert W. Bush ordered planning for a surgical strike to remove the strong man and his supporters from power.
After Operation Urgent Fury, the invasion of Grenada in 1983, the services were directed to work more closely together in expeditionary operations. The first large-scale operation to test this joint doctrine was accelerated in 1989 when the results of popular elections were ignored by Noriega.
The last straw occurred when an American Marine officer was killed and other Americans were assaulted.
To free the Panamanian people and to defend our Panama Canal Treaty obligations, all the armed services of the United States were integrated into a plan to attack 27 targets, simultaneously.
The goal was complex: regime change, not the wholesale defeat of the Panamanian Defense Force.
Using forces already stationed to defend the canal zone, other units deployed from the United States arrived by parachute, rubber raft, and scuba gear, the targeting the forces that propped up the Noriega regime.
The main PDF armed forces, largely trained and armed by the United States, were informed as the operation began that they were not the object of the attack and that the assault was to return the nation to the people.
In addition, targets were selected and firepower was projected to minimize civilian casualties.
As American forces destroyed his bodyguards and means of escape, Noriega took refuge in the embassy of the Vatican.
After days of music and threats blasted through psychological warfare loudspeakers, Noriega surrendered. He was immediately whisked to a waiting aircraft by Drug Enforcement Agency agents and taken to the United States to begin his trials and jail time.
Resistance by Noriega supporters collapsed, as the Panamanian people took to the streets and celebrated their newly-won freedom.
By treaty, the United States relinquished the canal zone to Panama in 2000.
The lessons learned by the United States military were incorporated in a larger scale within a year in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm as massive joint and coalition expeditionary operations.
In a larger scale, Operation Iraqi Freedom followed the model of massive regime change - removing Saddam Hussein and the Ba'ath Party from control over the Iraqi people.
Today, Manuel Noriega has completed a 20-year prison sentence and awaits extradition to face additional charges in France and Panama.
The proud people of Panama remain free - and friends of the United States.
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