Panama Quotes
The Panama railroad had been built by Americans over a half century ago, with appalling loss of life
Before there was a Panama Canal, there was a railroad that Americans had built earlier. Goods could be transshipped across Panama from one ocean to the other. However, the unloading and reloading of ships made the process very inefficient. A Canal would be much better. TR recognized the appalling loss of life in the construction of the railroad but we went ahead and built the canal which cost many more lives. Workers died from Malaria, other diseases, and a high rate of industrial and construction injuries.
La Guardia had seen some Federal officials claim that marijuana was a very dangerous drug leading to insanity, violence and murder if used. See {624434} and {590692} . However, none of the “dangers” had been verified by science and medicine/ La Guardia was the first public official who asked scientists to study the substance and let people know the real danger if any. The report was a major contracdiction to the federal propaganda that had been issued, and even continued to be after this study by the prestigious New York Academy of Medicine. It has been known for a long time that marijuana was relatively harmless when compared with other drugs such as heroin, cocaine, alcohol and tobacco. At the time the government officials had lied to the public grossly exaggerating the negative effects of marijuana. And scientific research was prohibited in most cases until the 21st century. And the evidence is now available that while marijuana does not have the very dangerous effect that was claimed, it is not benign either. Marijuana has an effect on the brain—especially of youth who are still developing—that is not totally understood. And there is a definite negative relationship between the extent of marihuana smoking student grades. Also we know now that marijuana impedes social development as well as intellectual. The causality is not clearly established however. It is possible that the poorer students and those less socially skilled have little success and use marijuana. With the exception of many adults who claim that marihuana helps them tolerate cancer drugs and other pain, there is no other benefit that has been found. Youngsters can think they are “cool” but that is about it on the plus side. On the negative side, marijuana is not the most dangerous drug one can take, but it is certainly not harmless.
He had been asked by American visitors what advice he would give America on dealing with Panamanian strongman Manual Noriega.
His dream was for a conference of South and Central American leaders who would meet with other world leaders to maintain peace and eliminate war. This was one of the early visions of a League of Nations or a United Nations.
The then ex-President was in Panama when the "distinguished" citizens were falsely certifying the election of General Noreiga's hand-picked candidate who had actually lost.
“Roosevelt” was President Theodore Roosevelt who had just supported a revolution in Panama with warships and then “negotiated” for the Panama Canal with the new government.
Noriega had been running drug smuggling operations in the United States. In 1989, American Troops landed in Panama and arrested him. He was brought to the United States, tried, convicted and served a jail sentence and was then extradited to Panama where he was again jailed there for his crimes as doctator.
We didn’t exactly pay for the rights to build the Canal but we did pay for the construction. See linked quote for a quotation regarding the acquisition of the Canal Zone. It became a heated internal American debate where the right wing did not want to turn the canal over to Panama claiming that the Panamanians could not operate the canal properly and the Chinese would obtain control. Ford started the process and Jimmy Carter signed the agreement.
CIA Director Webster had cleaned up the agency, but morale was terrible and there were few human agents left in key spots around the globe. However, since CNN and the other news organizations of the world have been equipped with modern digital technology it is quite common that they get information before the CIA does and often obtain information that the CIA never did get. In this instance, Bush turned to the Defense Department instead of the CIA and ordered a full scale invasion to arrest President Noriega who was running illicit drugs into the United States and felt that because he had once been a CIA informant, he would be immune.
