Seems that he's been extradited to France to be tried on money laundering charges.  Hillary Clinton signed the papers after a Federal judge cleared the deportation.  He had been in US custody ever since the Panama invasion of 1989.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100426/ap_on_re_us/us_noriega_extradition

Y'all come back real soon, Manny!
:\'(

That whole farce of a trial he had, I am thinking they are just hoping he goes away quietly.

Uh.... What?  How can anyone sympathize with Noriega?  Yeah, we backed him at one point, but that's the part we should be ashamed of.

It's kind of like Saddam.  We mistakenly thought he'd be a useful pawn, then lo and behold, it turns out his level of crazy doesn't allow for much loyalty in the long run.

Things would be a lot better if we didn't back dictators to begin with.  Since we have, we're at the point now where we occasionally have to remove them.

Thus the beginning of the new movie, National Lampoon's Central American Deposed Ex Dictator Drug Trafficker European Jail Extradition Vacation!

;D

Coming soon to a theater near you!

Cue soundtrack!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nLiQBV6A7c

;D

Uh.... What?  How can anyone sympathize with Noriega?  Yeah, we backed him at one point, but that's the part we should be ashamed of.

It's kind of like Saddam.  We mistakenly thought he'd be a useful pawn, then lo and behold, it turns out his level of crazy doesn't allow for much loyalty in the long run.

Things would be a lot better if we didn't back dictators to begin with.  Since we have, we're at the point now where we occasionally have to remove them.


I take the opposite tack on this.  An honest politician is one who, once bought, stays bought.

And by that metric, the US - at least in terms of foreign policy - is the least-reliable bunch of politicians on the planet.  Unlike some countries (anyone give me a good reason why Kim Jong-Il's still in power?  Anyone?  Bueller?), we overthrow our puppets once they're no longer of use to us.  (Sometimes we even hang our puppets out to dry before the coup is over, like the poor bastard whose coup we helped orchestrate against Chavez, who lasted all of a few hours in power before we dropped him.) 

That's all well and good for the moral high ground, but how the hell are we supposed to install puppet governments we can depend on, if our track record of supporting our puppets is so poor?  What national leader in his right mind would ever ally with the US on any matter of foreign policy, knowing that sooner or later we'll just leave him hangin' in the breeze?

I take the opposite tack on this.  An honest politician is one who, once bought, stays bought.

And by that metric, the US - at least in terms of foreign policy - is the least-reliable bunch of politicians on the planet.  Unlike some countries (anyone give me a good reason why Kim Jong-Il's still in power?  Anyone?  Bueller?), we overthrow our puppets once they're no longer of use to us.  (Sometimes we even hang our puppets out to dry before the coup is over, like the poor bastard whose coup we helped orchestrate against Chavez, who lasted all of a few hours in power before we dropped him.) 

That's all well and good for the moral high ground, but how the hell are we supposed to install puppet governments we can depend on, if our track record of supporting our puppets is so poor?  What national leader in his right mind would ever ally with the US on any matter of foreign policy, knowing that sooner or later we'll just leave him hangin' in the breeze?


We shouldn't be installing puppet governments to begin with.

We shouldn't be installing puppet governments to begin with.


Well, in a perfect world...

...but since the only countries that matter have forsaken that particular piece of the moral high ground since the 1950s, suffice it to say that it's an imperfect world.  *sigh*

Uh.... What?  How can anyone sympathize with Noriega?  Yeah, we backed him at one point, but that's the part we should be ashamed of.

It's kind of like Saddam.  We mistakenly thought he'd be a useful pawn, then lo and behold, it turns out his level of crazy doesn't allow for much loyalty in the long run.

Things would be a lot better if we didn't back dictators to begin with.  Since we have, we're at the point now where we occasionally have to remove them.



Sympathize?  See, there is the problem.  Just because a person is willing to speak out about what was an obvious farce doesn't in any way mean that they are sympathetic to the person at the receiving end.

Thus the beginning of the new movie, National Lampoon's Central American Deposed Ex Dictator Drug Trafficker European Jail Extradition Vacation!

;D

Coming soon to a theater near you!

Cue soundtrack!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nLiQBV6A7c

;D




Then you need one from "European Vacation"!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsXknE8LOEI

Well, in a perfect world...

...but since the only countries that matter have forsaken that particular piece of the moral high ground since the 1950s, suffice it to say that it's an imperfect world.  *sigh*


True, but...  that just means we can let other countries install their favorites, and we get to remove them.

Nation-bombing is generally much cheaper than nation-building.