US Invasion of Panama

Discussion 4- Confession of an Economic hit man (book)
300 words min
INSTRUCTOR VIDEO (CLICK HERE)
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
How does Perkins narrative help you to understand the 20th Century history of Panama, a country that the American media did not want you to learn about? Do you recall reading about any of the information that Perkins offers about Panama in High School? Did you every read about anything other than the Panama Canal in High School having to do with Panama?
Bring up some ideas from the readings that shed new light on this corner of the world.
FOR THOSE WHO CHOSE TO WATCH THE DOCUMENTARY (OPTIONAL)
As I've said, watching the documentary called The Panama Invasion is a good idea because it fills in some of the blanks from the readings with a strong narrative about what happened in the US invasion of Panama. Watching to documentary is optional, but it can really help with the writing of Essay Two if you seem stumped on which topic to chose. Panama is one topic that is hard to mess up because all of the cards are on the table. You can really see in the documentary how the US media distorted and even lied about the invasion and what really happened.
Regardless of whether you are old enough to remember the invasion personally, the documentary is certainly an eye-opening experience. Do you feel its coverage and reporting was fair and open, or biased to the point of being "un-American." Is it unpatriotic to investigate and consider things that our government has done, which were unethical and counter to the wishes of the Founding Fathers and the Constitution? Was there anything overtly unconstitutional about America's invasion? If so, what?
Example
Panama Canal story
As I have stated in previous assignments I absolutely love history and I think it's incredibly important for everyone to understand for reasons like what we what we are learning about this term. In high school I took AP history courses for college credit as well as several other history courses and I can honestly say I can't recall anything significant or worth remembering when I hear the phrase Panama Canal. After completing this assignment I feel a little ashamed, I have family from there, who would have dealt with this horrible situation. In my early US history courses I remember learning about the acquisition of land from Mexico, not that it was forced, just that it happened, the American Revolution, and Boston tea party but nothing about the Panama Canal. When I heard the title Panama Canal, I didn't really know what it meant or stood for, or what an important role it played in our history, its strategic value to not just the US but the world and its eternal power plays.
The narrative from Confessions of an economic hit man definitely played an important role for shedding some light on the corruption, devastation, and conspiracy to the whole Panama Canal issue but I think that the documentary played an equally vital role in that equation. It's one thing to hear about the different presidents, what they stood for and why they were assassinated but it's a whole other thing to visually see and hear about the people and the events that unfolded. You really feel the gravity of their situation between the killings both random and execution style of men, women, and children then dumping them in mass graves. You just don't get that from the Narrative.
I think that the video should be required because it gives us the opportunity to have a more well-rounded view and understanding of the situation that the narrative is trying to convey and why it was so absolutely important.
It's one thing to read economic hit man, it's another to see the people who lived it, lived in poverty, see the politicians, how they ran their country. See who might be corruptible or expendable and would be killed off and replaced by corruptible politicians is 1 thing. The video offers a bigger picture Beale of what's going on the who what when where is unwise. It was absolutely devastating. What's even more so is that this kind of thing happens all the time and no 1 knows any better then we're concerned with sports athletes because secret models and runway shows and movies and don't get me started on social media. The point is there are some really terrible things happening in the world that don't have to be so terrible. We are only being given a small taste of what's happening which isn't necessarily about day but it isn't a good thing either I think that to make the world a better place and more functional sustainable the ass prosperous we need to make some serious to do this period I realize this is just A-day dream because the same handful of families has been running things for generations but eventually something is going to happen to this world that will be even beyond their power on hopefully they will wonder was it all worth it