Conquer Club

caonima wrote:name a country that engaged in a 20th century conflict and at no point ever engaged in the massacre or other gross abuses of civilians

notyou2 wrote:US in I think it was Panama, where they played loud music until the dictator surrendered from his hidey hole in the royal palace.

notyou2 wrote:US in I think it was Panama, where they played loud music until the dictator surrendered from his hidey hole in the royal palace.

wiki wrote:Casualties

The Commission for the Defense of Human Rights in Central America (CODEHUCA) estimated 2,500–3,000 deaths, and the Commission for the Defense of Human Rights in Panama (Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos de Panamá, CONADEHUPA) estimated 3,500 deaths.[31] A report by former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, claimed over 4,000 deaths.[32] The report also concluded that "neither Panamanian nor U.S. governments provided a careful accounting of non-lethal injuries" and that "relief efforts were inadequate to meet the basic needs of thousands of civilians made homeless by the invasion." The report estimated the number of displaced civilians to be over 15,000, whereas the U.S. military provided support for only 3,000 of these.
A US Army M113 in Panama

According to official Pentagon figures, 516 Panamanians were killed during the invasion; however, an internal Army memo estimated the number at 1,000.[33]

The UN estimated 500 deaths,[34]

The U.S. lost 23 troops[35] and 325 were wounded (WIA). The U.S. Southern Command, then based on Quarry Heights in Panama, estimated the number of Panamanian military dead at 205, lower than its original estimate of 314.

Civilian fatalities include an American schoolteacher working in Panama and Spanish freelance press photographer José Manuel Rodríguez.

Human Rights Watch's 1991 report on Panama in the post-invasion aftermath stated that even with some uncertainties about the scale of civilian casualties, the figures are "still troublesome" because

[Panama's civilian deaths] reveal that the "surgical operation" by American forces inflicted a toll in civilian lives that was at least four-and-a-half times higher than military casualties in the enemy, and twelve or thirteen times higher than the casualties suffered by U.S. troops. By themselves these ratios suggest that the rule of proportionality and the duty to minimize harm to civilians, where doing so would not compromise a legitimate military objective, were not faithfully observed by the invading U.S. forces. For us, the controversy over the number of civilian casualties should not obscure the important debate on the manner in which those people died.[36]