Caesaropopulism* in Action: U.S. Military Intervention in Panama and the Persian Gulf

This article argues that American involvement, that is, intervention, in the Third World is predicated upon a distinctly discernible pattern and policy. The two recent cases of U.S. intervention — in Panama in December 1989 and in the Persian-Gulf in January 1991 — illustrate my point. In each instance, the U.S. invasion was Justified as a moral and patriotic mission in defense of freedom, justice, and national interests against villainous enemies, whereas actually, on both occasions, the superior American firepower helped the U.S. military-industrial interests take firmer hold on the targeted territories. These episodes repeat the earlier ones since World War II in confirming the fact that American political messianism supported by the American military harked back to the Western imperialism of the nineteenth century.