WASHINGTON -- The Panamanian civilian casualties in Operation Just Cause are covered neatly if cynically by a Pentagon euphemism -- 'collateral damage.'
As in all combat operations, too many who paid with their lives in the American invasion were innocent noncombatants. But, unquestionably, the civilian casualties also included thugs of the so-called Dignity Battalions.
Among civilians, incomplete reports disclose the fighting resulted in about 400 killed and 2,000 wounded.
Of up to 13,000 people displaced, about 5,000 still are without shelter.
With hindsight, it seems clear the Pentagon brass underestimated the opposition, a mistake which resulted in high casualties in the generally friendly civilian population.
Television viewers throughout the world saw the destruction of civilian housing by the awesome but inappropriate use of massive American firepower.
What they saw was a style of conventional fighting more suitable for a world war than a surgical strike to decapitate a drug-dealing dictator's army and bring him to justice.
Artillery blasted targets surrounded by apartments crowded with civilians in the heart of Panama City.
GIs trained machine guns on doubtful resistance, while ultra-sophisticated F-117 stealth attack aircraft bombarded the overmatched defenders.
If such overkill had tragic results for some innocents, a few of the gross excesses were comic.
Some bozo brainstormed a strategy that had GIs shooting out the street lights around the Panama City's Vatican Embassy. The nunciature houses deposed despot Manuel Antonio Noriega, the target of the massive American intervention who is seeking political asylum.
Another silly strategist ordered GIs to search the Nicaraguan ambassador's residence, a foray President Bush later had to concede was a 'screw-up.'
One clever tactician ordered his troops surrounding the nunciature to assault Noriega's senses with boom boxes blasting heavy-metal rock.
Such shenanigans trivialize the sacrifice of the 23 American military men killed in the so far futile effort to bring the murderous strongman to justice.
The 25,000 troops committed to the operation by Bush killed 297 Panamanian soldiers but failed to capture Noriega.
The president Sunday visited soldiers wounded in the invasion and said his obligation to those who were killed solidified his desire to have Noriega extradited to the United States to face drug charges.
Bush scheduled his hospital visit in San Antonio, Texas, at the end of his six-day hunting, fishing and golfing holiday, which ends New Year's Day.
The president downplayed a rift between Washington and the Vatican over efforts to extradite Noreiga.
'If need be,' Bush said, invoking the name of Pope John Paul II, 'I'll get on the phone with the holy father.'
The pope may have some questions for the president about all those civilian casualties.