A man, a lack of a plan, a cabal... PANAMA!

"Or are we reasserting control over the drug trade"

Just realpolitik trying to counteract growing Chinese influence in the area. For America, the era of perceived exceptionalism is over; the chance for foreign influence )other than that of cold coercion) is over; the morons currently making these types of decisions think they can maintain control of its decaying hegemon by making a hoary speeches in front of 2,000 year-old ruins or by stationing a few hundred living silhouette targets in the area.