government admitted to. Other sources, examining more evidence, concluded that thousands had died. Additionally, some 3,000 Panamanians were wounded, 23 Americans died, and 324 were wounded.

Question from reporter: Was it really worth it to send people to their death for this? To get Noriega?

George Bush: Every human life is precious, and yet I have to answer, yes, it has been worth it.

Manuel Noriega had been an American ally and informant for years until he outlived his usefulness. But getting him was hardly a major motive for the attack. Bush wanted to send a clear message to the people of Nicaragua, who had an election scheduled in two months, that this might be their fate if they reelected the Sandinistas. Bush also wanted to flex some military muscle to illustrate to Congress the need for a large combat-ready force despite the very recent dissolution of the Soviet threat . The official explanation for the American ouster was Noriegas drug trafficking, which Washington had known about for years and had not been at all bothered by. And they could easily have gotten their hands on the man without wreaking such terrible devastation upon the Panamanian people.54

Afghanistan, 1979-92

The striking repression of women in Afghanistan carried out by the Taliban Islamic fundamentalists is well known. Much less publicized is that in the late 1970s and most of the 1980s Afghanistan had a government committed to bringing the incredibly underdeveloped country into the 20th century (never mind the 21st), including giving women equal rights. The United States, however, poured billions of dollars into waging a terrible war against this government, simply because it was supported by the Soviet Union. By aiding the fundamentalist opposition, Washington knowingly and deliberately increased the probability of a Soviet intervention.55 And when that occurred, the CIA became the grand orchestrator: hitting up Middle Eastern countries for huge financial support, on top of that from Washington; pressuring and bribing neighboring Pakistan to rent out its country as a military staging area and sanctuary; supplying a great arsenal of weaponry and military training.

In the end, the United States and the Taliban won , and the women, and the rest of Afghanistan, lost. More than a million were dead, three million disabled, five million refugees, in total about half the population.

El Salvador, 1980-92

Salvadors dissidents tried to work within the system. But with US support, the government made that impossible, using repeated electoral fraud and murdering hundreds

of protestors and strikers. In 1980, the dissidents took to the gun, and civil war. Washington responded immediately.

Officially, the US military presence in El Salvador was limited to an advisory capacity. In actuality, military and CIA personnel played a more active role on a continuous basis. About 20 Americans were killed or wounded in helicopter and plane crashes while flying reconnaissance or other missions over combat areas, and considerable evidence surfaced of a US role in the ground fighting as well. The war came to an official end in 1992 with these results: 75,000 civilian deaths; the US Treasury depleted by six billion dollars; meaningful social change thwarted; a handful of the wealthy still owning the country; the poor remaining as ever; dissidents still having to fear right-wing death squads; there would be no profound social change in El Salvador.

Haiti, 1987-94

The US supported the Duvalier family dictatorship for 30 years, then opposed the reformist priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Meanwhile, the CIA was working intimately with death squads, torturers and drug traffickers. With this as background, in 1994 the Clinton White House found itself in the awkward position of having to pretend-because of all their rhetoric about democracy -that they supported the democratically-elected Aristides return to power after he had been ousted in a 1991 military coup. After delaying his return for more than two years, Washington finally had its military restore Aristide to office, but only after obliging the priest to guarantee that he would not help the poor at the expense of the rich, literally; and that he would stick closely to free-market economics. This meant that Haiti would continue to be the assembly plant of the Western Hemisphere, with its workers receiving starvation wages, literally. If Aristide had thoughts about breaking the agreement forced upon him, he had only to look out his window-US troops were stationed in Haiti for the remainder of his term.

Bulgaria, 1990-91

In November 1999, President Clinton visited Bulgaria and told a crowd in Sofia that he hailed them for throwing off communism and holding fair elections.56 What he failed to mention was that after one of their fair elections had been won by the communists, the US government had proceeded to overthrow them.

In 1990, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) poured more than $1.5 million into Bulgaria in an attempt to defeat the Bulgarian Socialist Party (the former Communist Party) in the June 1990 national election. On the basis of population, this was equivalent to a foreign power injecting some $38 million into an American electoral campaign. The main recipient of NED largesse was the leading opposition party, the Union of Democratic Forces, which received $517,000, in addition to its newspaper receiving $233,000.57 Much to the shock and dismay of Washington, the BSP won.

This would not do. Washingtons ideological bottom line was that the Bulgarian Socialist Party could not, and would not, be given the chance to prove that a democratic, socialist-oriented mixed economy could succeed in Eastern Europe while the capitalist model was already beginning to disillusion people all around it. NED stepped in with generous funding and advice to specific opposition groups which carried out a campaign of chaos lasting almost five months: very militant and disruptive street demonstrations, paralyzing labor strikes, sit-ins, hunger strikes, arson.. .parliament was surrounded, the government was under siege...until finally the president was forced to resign, followed by some of his ministers; lastly, the prime minister gave up his office.

In 1991, NED again threw hundreds of thousands of dollars into the election; this time, what NED calls the democratic forces won.58

Albania, 1991-92

This tale is very similar to that of Bulgaria. A Communist govern-ment won overwhelming endorsement in the March 1991 elections, followed immediately by two months of widespread unrest, including street demonstrations and a general strike lasting three weeks, which finally led to the collapse of the new government by June.59 NED had been there also, providing $80,000 to the labor movement and $23,000 to support party training and civic education programs .60

A new election was held in March 1992. During the election cam-paign, US political strategists and diplomats, including the American ambassador, openly accompanied candidates of the Democratic Party (the Communists chief opposition) on their stumping tours and got out the message that said-frankly and explicitly-If the Communists win again, there will be no US aid, and a lot of Western investors and governments are going to direct their aid elsewhere . The NED, once again, was there with all kinds of goodies for the good guys , including brand new Jeep Cherokees.61 The Democratic Party won.

Somalia, 1993

It was supposed to be a mission to help feed the starving masses. Before long, the US was trying to rearrange the countrys political map by eliminating the dominant warlord, Mohamed Aidid, and his power base. On many occasions, beginning in June, US helicopters strafed groups of Aidids supporters and fired missiles at them. Scores were killed. Then, in October, a daring attempt by some 120 elite American forces to kidnap two leaders of Aidids clan resulted in a horrendous bloody battle. The final tally was five US helicopters shot down, 18 Americans dead, 73 wounded, 500 to 1,000 Somalians killed, many more injured.

Its questionable that getting food to hungry people was as important as the fact that four American oil giants were holding exploratory rights to large areas of land and were