Panama says no to U.S. military base

reuteurs ^ | 7/4/08 | reuteurs

[Flavius]

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Panama has ruled out hosting a U.S. military base to replace one in Ecuador which is being reclaimed by the Quito government, a senior Panamanian official said on Friday.

Panama -- along with Peru and Colombia -- had been tipped as a possible site to replace the Manta air base in western Ecuador, a key strategic asset in Washington's campaign to stop Latin American cocaine from reaching the United States.

[Flavius]

anama has earmarked around $1.6 billion for upgrading current facilities. China's state-owned shipping giant China Ocean Shipping, COSCO (600428.SS: Quote, Profile, Research), has expressed interest in building a new mega-port at the Panama Canal's Pacific entrance.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUKN1822750820080619

[Coffee200am]

Don’t ask for help when Chavez comes calling...

[villagerjoel]

I don’t have a problem with us having bases, but the drug war causes more problems than it solves (does it solve any problems?). It needs to end now.

[al baby]

All I can say is Jimmy Carter you suck

[tomh68]

Thank you Jimma Carter. sarc

[Jet Jaguar]

Agreed.

[tbpiper]

You're right. I think we ought to give in and allow every thing that destroys peoples' souls; drugs, prostitution, pornography, whatever vice. Just so long as we can tax it. As long as we can legitimately make money off of it, why not?

[Ratblaster]

I had the exact words in my mind, as I was scrolling down on the way to post them.

[Santino Sonny Corleone]

we could and should have gotten a base concession there. As far as the Canal, I don’t think US could have held it for longer with the protests and bad press.

[marktwain]

“bad press”

---

There you have it. There were only a tiny minority of Panamanians who wanted their government to have control of the Canal. Most of them wanted the US to stay in possession, because they realized how corrupt their own government was.

I lived in Panama for 5 years, and this was the sense of it that I got. It was just a few communist agitators in the Colleges and a few in the government who wanted this.

My guess is that Torrijos asked for the moon, as a negotiating position, and was surprised as could be when Carter handed it to him on a platter.

[Ratblaster]

This just in the government of North Columbia (formerly Panama) has agreed to lease land for a large U.S. military base.

[marktwain]

“You're right. I think we ought to give in and allow every thing that destroys peoples’ souls; drugs, prostitution, pornography, whatever vice. Just so long as we can tax it. As long as we can legitimately make money off of it, why not?”

---

More and more people are saying that Christianity is bad for people, and is used to just make money. Certainly they say that guns are bad for peoples souls. Drugs used to be legal. I think we had less problems then. Prostitution is legal in parts of Nevada. We seem to have more problems with it where it is illegal.

People make choices all the time that others think is bad for them. The problem is that in trying to enforce choices that do not clearly hurt another person, you open the door to the State running your own life when you are in the minority.

A lot of people think that *you* should not be able to criticize homosexuality, for example, or own a big car, or smoke in your own house, or home school your children, because they believe that you are indirectly hurting yourself and other people.

[villagerjoel]

This may come as a shock to you, but drugs are easily obtainable in the US. It isn’t working. What it is doing, is pissing off a whole lot of people by us being involved in their business (Peruvians were chewing on coke leaves for hundreds of years before we came along and told them to kill their plants). Friends in Holland have pot available in coffee shops, and look down upon it like you would the corner booze shop. It provides terrorists and gangs with lucrative sources of income, and costs you and me billions of dollars.

I don’t need the government to make sure I’m staying away from vices. Also, pornography is legal.

[martinidon]

okay by me as long as we say no to any $$$$ to assist the government. Plus most parts of Panama looks like a dump!

[stravinskyrules]

you are correct. Coke should be legal. Throwing money down a rat hole to maintain a base to throw more money down the WOD rat hole.

[Don Corleone]

Thank you Jimmy Karter. Now we go begging to get something we had already owned..”in perpetuity!” Left wing idiot simpelton,.

[tbpiper]

This may come as a shock to you, but as a society, we need to take a moral stand. Pornogrophy is legal but very detrimental, drugs even more so. Will these things go away? No, but we do need to keep them at bay as much as possible.

[marktwain]

“This may come as a shock to you, but as a society, we need to take a moral stand. Pornogrophy is legal but very detrimental, drugs even more so. Will these things go away? No, but we do need to keep them at bay as much as possible.”

---

You don't need to make things illegal to take a moral stand.

[tbpiper]

You don't need to make things illegal to take a moral stand.

Personally no, however laws reflect the general society(ideally). If your law condones an activity your conscience considers immoral, your society is schitzophenic (of which we can find many examples today).

[villagerjoel]

“...as a society, we need to take a moral stand.”

I'm glad we agree. It is society's place to be concerned about these things, and do everything to prevent them; however, government, as in most cases, is not the solution as we have seen in the last 15 years of the War on Drugs.

I think alcohol is a fairly good parallel. People are going to do it anyway, and at least now, we're not funding a chaotic criminal underground.