Comment by bell-cot

On the relative upside, Panama was a 10X smaller country. The US had some long-term skin in the game with the Canal. And Bush Sr. was in the Oval Office - making it not-too-hard to imagine that sane grown-ups were in charge.

Vs. "70s" sounds far more like Vietnam. And a whole load of other bigger/uglier/longer conflicts, under Presidents whose moral and military leadership seemed rather lacking.