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Via night-vision goggles, Mike Durant observed as 2 2,000-pound laser-guided bombs impacted onto the Panamanian military base while he hovered near the country's southern shoreline in a Black Hawk helicopter.

"A massive flash, followed after a blast ... like the biggest lightning bolt strike you've ever experienced in your life," the retired US military aviator recalled of the initial salvo of the Conflict of Rio Hato's Airfield in the month of December 1989.

Past Parallels

The stealth aircraft blitzkrieg and subsequent army ranger assault represented the beginning of the US intervention in Panama - intended to remove Panama's military ruler, General Noriega.

Durant and his unit members had orders to take control of the Panama's military forces installation to block forces coming to the dictator's rescue. Over the subsequent days, the pilot and more than 25,000 other American military personnel hunted the autocrat, who eventually gave up on 3 January 1990.

"Noriega was a awful person ... and he needed to be ousted," said Durant.

Current Armed Forces Deployments

Recollections of the Panama operation have returned in the past few weeks' time after Donald Trump ordered the largest US armed forces deployment in Latin America and the Caribbean Sea since that military intervention almost four decades ago.

A seventh of US naval resources - comprising the planet's biggest naval vessel, the USS Ford - have been deployed to the region starting in last August, with strategic aircraft and elite troops spotted near Venezuelan north shoreline. Military strikes on suspected narcotics ships in the Pacific and Caribbean have resulted in the deaths of over 60 individuals.

Official vs Actual Objectives

Publicly, the stationing of warships, military unmanned aircraft and approximately 10,000 military personnel is part of a campaign on Latin American drug traffickers who Trump claims of flooding the US with illegal substances. But many believe Trump's real goal is overthrowing Venezuela's ruler, President Maduro, like President Bush toppled Noriega before he was tried and jailed in the US.

Opposition Viewpoints

Various representatives of Venezuela's opposition seem keen for a replay of the Panama operation, on an even more larger magnitude. The exiled political figure Leopoldo López in recent times voiced endorsement for a US attack to oust Maduro, who is generally thought to have rigged the previous presidential election.

"Not to be the messenger of negative news, but it looks like we are about to embark on yet another regime change operation, like, the coming week," declared Tucker Carlson recently week, flagging the Iraq war as a prime case of the US's problematic history of regime changes that backfired.

"Such actions never achieves its goals - but we are pursuing it again, seemingly," Carlson commented.

American and Expert Perspective

A current poll found nearly 50% of US citizens resistant to using armed intervention to oust Maduro with only 18% in favor.

Durant also had doubts, even though considering the Panama operation the most successful operation of his 20-year military service. He was confident US troops could oust Maduro, as they did Noriega. "Our forces have significant ability and superb people. But would it be justified placing all that at risk?" wondered Durant.

Before Just Cause, many of American forces were stationed in Panama, Durant observed, but the US has no such footprint in the country.

Strategic Assessment

The situation was additionally uncertain how effective Maduro's Venezuelan military were of combating back. "That to me is the biggest wildcard," Durant remarked. "They do well-organized parades. But what can they truly do? Are they prepared? Are they funded? Are they prepared to fight? Are they loyal?"

Historical Comparisons

Historian Grow, a historian who authored research about US presidents and Latin American cold war actions, saw "intriguing parallels" to past operations.

In 1988, on the eve of Just Cause, the US charged Noriega for narcotics trafficking - similar to they have with Maduro who lately had a fifty million dollar bounty placed on his person for supposedly leading a "narco-terrorist" organization. "Therefore ... they've established a useful pretext if they opt to undertake a military path," Grow commented.

Possible Outcomes

"However I do not consider it's on the agenda with this administration ... These people are not neocons. They're considerably more nationalist ... I simply do not anticipate the US getting involved in a military occupation in South America," Grow remarked, though he did not exclude "precision attack drone operations"

Ambassador Story, the US's chief diplomat for Venezuela from 2018 to 2023, additionally doubted a Panama-style invasion was coming: "The United States always prefer superior power and it would require 100,000 forces - and that's not this administration's style."

Alternative Approaches

But the ex- ambassador - who initially considered Trump's armed forces buildup sabre-rattling - now viewed an 80% likelihood of "specific aggressive operation" on Venezuelan soil in the coming 30 days, probably an air strike. "Our amount of assets that have been positioned in the zone indicate to me that we are going