The Invasion Of Panama :: essays research papers fc

The Invasion of PanamaThe U.S. invasion of Panama on December 20, 1989 was a mark ofexcellence on the behalf of the U.S. armed forces ability to effectively use theprinciples of war. The years leading up to the invasion set the climate forconflict drug trafficking became a major puzzle between Panama and the U.S. inthe 1980s, as well as Manuel Noriegas interference with the Panama canalemployees rights under the Panama Canal Treaty the final bring through that sparkedthe invasion was Noriegas attempt to fix the national election and the militaryenforcement of the fix after the election. Once this took place the U.S. beganto make a plan for the invasion. The overwhelming success of this missionstemmed from the U.S. militarys competent use of the principals of war.     The primary success of a mission is the ability to define an overallattainable objective for the mission. In the preparedness of the mission toinvade Panama, the U.S. military set out four main o bjectives of the mission.First, they wanted to "protect American lives" (Watson 69). This meant theywanted to protect the lives of the 35,000 U.S. citizens in Panama from attacksby Noriegas Panama Defense Force or PDF they also wanted to protect the livesof Americans at home by attempting to eliminate drug trafficking. Second, theywanted to "protect American interests and rights under the Panama Canal Treaty"(Watson 69). This could be done by abolishing Noriegas control of the workerswho operate the canal, and his control of the canal itself. Third, they wantedto "restore a parliamentary and freely elected government to Panama" (Watson 107).Here, the U.S. would gain control over the country and ensure a fair election.And, finally, they wanted to "apprehend Noriega" (Watson 69) for prosecution inthe U.S.. This would ease the difficulty of restoring democracy and eliminatingdrug trafficking, as well as giving Americans a feeling that justice was beings erved. These objectives gave the mission clear goals to achieve, allowing forthe planing of distributively task that needed to be completed in order to accomplish themission.     Once objective has been established, the next step was to derive asimple plan, hobby the principle of simplicity, which is the formation of"Direct, simple plans and clear, concise orders to minimize misunderstanding andconfusion" (Stofft 7). That is just what the U.S. did. They used direct andsimple plans to carry out their mission that is not to say the invasion was asimple operation, on the contrary, the command and control measures were verydifficult. Thus, the plan was as simple as it could be with concern to the