Dad Invades Panama, Nearly Blows the Wedding

In early December, Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) held their Christmas ball early.

In the morning, my Mom woke up and saw the bed empty beside her, in the hollow where Dad's body should have been.
For several days we watched the news to track Dad.
When Dad went missing, something big blew up somewhere...
A Commander of United States Joint Special Forces (Covert Operations),
dangerous and hated by millions of the armed enemies of the United States,
any day Dad could have been pronounced missing or dead, with no explanation-
The details of Dad's death, like the details of his missions, would be classified "Top-Secret" for decades into the future.
Not too long before this, Dad and our family buddies had shaken our nerves, and those of most of the "free world", by blowing up much of Haiti and many jet-black Haitians too.
So the next several days we felt cold and tense, preparing for our winter wedding in which Dad might not appear, then or ever again.

On Dec 20, the news was dominated by the truth of what Dad n' Friends were up to:
The largest military operation since the VietNam war.
(Operation "Just Cause.")

The Joint Special Forces of the United States were bombing Panama City.

As usual, Dad and Uncle Sam were "saving the people" by rescuing them from a "Demonic Dictator."
A dictator whom Dad's buddies in the CIA had themselves installed to fill the political crater left when they blew up the previous President's plane, (with the President (Torrijos, Sr.) inside, because Torrijos had refused to give the U.S.A. control of the Panama Canal.

Carter had given back the Canal to Panama 12 years earlier, (because it belongs to Panama.))
The U.S. Puppet [Noriega] had not danced well enough on the United States' strings:
Noriega was scheming with Japan to build a bigger, better Panama Canal.
So Dad and his boys did an excellent job of removing Noriega to Miami, where [they say] Noriega rotted in jail for 20 years.

A brilliant success, one the world's most important pieces of real estate, the single most expensive construction project in United States history in its time, one of the seven modern wonders of the world, back in control of [whoever owns] the U.S.
The only little collateral glitch was, Dad and his patriotic crew killed thousands of innocent civilians and destroyed Panama's economy and infrastructure.

All for a "Just Cause", though, to send a message to Saddam Hussein that Iraq was the next country to be destroyed (it was) if Iraq stopped taking rapidly devaluing U.S. dollars for its oil (it did stop taking dollars in favor of gold.)
And then the hammer fell, because wars are about control of money and trade: control via religion, or by force.

NEXT: Troy And Genie Get Married

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