Your editorial ("Noriega-75; U.S.-20," Jan. 3) underscores an important point that has gone largely unnoticed in recent weeks.
When Americans are unified, as they were in the case of the Panama strike, it makes almost no difference what the rest of the world thinks. The Panama experience shows that so long as Congress, the media and lobby groups agree with the president. what the rest of the world thinks counts for very little. Disgruntled comments by allies, professed outrage in Latin America, lopsided votes at the United Nations - they all hardly matter. Conversely, they count for a great deal when Americans are divided, as was the case, most notably, in Vietnam and El Salvador.
There's an obvious lesson here. If we can settle our differences. no one can stop us.
Daniel Pipes
Foreign Policy Research Institute
Philadelphia
