Comments by "David Himmelsbach" (@davidhimmelsbach557) on "Control The Choke Point: How The US Stole The Panama Canal" video.

  1. Columbia treated Panamanians as second-class citizens... rather like Britain treated Ireland. The Americans triggered Panama's freedom from Bogatá via basic geo-politics. Nothing came free, nothing was stolen. Then the US took over the French fiasco of a sea level trans-isthmus canal. In financial terms, a total write-off. Then the US solved malaria by addressing the swamps -- which against all prior expectation -- eluded the French. (Mere oil was used to ruin breeding.) Until this happened, Panama was an economic desert... in a swampland. It was also an epic money-pit. Then the US poured in the staggering wealth required to make Panama a viable national entity -- able to stand on the world stage. For decades afterward, Panama lived on the trade-rent of the Canal... via what ended up being a leasehold deal. (The original deal had no term limit -- but geo-politics changed all of that less than 70-years later. The US didn't even hang onto the Canal for 99-years -- something the British pulled off in Hong Kong.) In all of this, NOTHING came free to the USA. Nothing was stolen. Compared to its Latin American peers, Panama has been rolling in clover. Enough trolling and historical distortion. The Panama Canal Zone was the creation of the most liberal Americans yet born. It was a noble project -- and an achievement that signaled America's coming of age for the 20th Century.
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