By Bill Harrison
The Panama Canal, over which the US lost control since December 31, 1999, is back in the news following hints by President Donald Trump that the US may take it back.
The Panama Canal is a vital maritime link between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, shortening the distance by thousands of nautical miles, avoiding the hazardous route around Cape Horn, and serving as a strategic waterway.
It is considered a remarkable engineering achievement and an international crossroads, initially built and operated by the United States since 1903 before Panama took full control in 1999.
At the signing of the Torrijos -Carter Treaties, which mapped out the gradual withdrawal plan of the US from the Canal, one of its greatest territorial assets in Southern America, General Omar Effraim Torrijos, the military maximum leader of Panama shed tears!
When he was later asked about it, he confessed that his tears were for the US President Jimmy Carter; because he saw besides him a vulnerable man driven by a sense of justice rather than politics in the depraved international system based on cutthroat opportunism.
Carter’s acceptance to hand over the Canal back under Panama’s sovereignty, he said, was borne of morality than Realpolitik.
He said he saw something and couldn’t hold back the tears; he said he saw that his friend knew too well at that moment that he was politically finished as the President of the United States of America as soon as he signed the dotted lines!
That he had just committed a political suicide. The General said, the tears were for a good man who even at the level of high stakes politicking chose justice over opportunism.
Indeed, General Torrijos’ fears came to pass later; President Carter, the 39th President of the USA, spent only one term in office, January 20, 1977- January 20,1981.
Although he served one of the briefest terms in office, he and his adorable wife, Roselyn, gave a lifetime of humanitarian and philanthropic work around the world!
If you look at his voluntary work records around the globe there’s virtually no country, especially the vulnerable countries of the world, without his footprints.
Be it Palestine, South Africa, South Sudan, Cambodia, Bolivia, Haiti or Myanmar, he was there.
You will simply be amazed by the recognitions and awards he has received around the world.
In 2002, he received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Last, October 1, former President Carter turned 100 year old.
According to Wiki, ‘at age 100, he is the oldest living, longest-lived and longest-married president, and has the longest post-presidency. He is also the fourth-oldest living former state leader.’
Unfortunately, like the re-emergence of President Trump in the United States demonstrate, the world is still beholden to Machiavellianism to moral suasion in international relations.
