One for the Gipper
"A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not."
- Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) speech about the Iran Contra affair, March 4, 1987
When Ronald Wilson Reagan became the 40th President in 1981, America was a nation battered by Vietnam, damaged by Watergate, humiliated by Iran and looking for a hero. During his campaign Reagan promised a "patriotic crusade" to reduce the size and scope of government, to restore the traditional values of middle-class hometown America and to rebuild American military power in order to have "peace through strength."
He, together with his partner George Herbert Walker Bush, won two national elections, the second by a landslide of historic proportions, and by the time he left in 1988, "The Great Communicator" was seen by the Jabberwockies as being responsible for winning World War III, or "The Cold War," without firing a single shot, and for setting the scene for one of the longest periods of prosperity in American history.
Yet actions of men have unintended consequences, and now it would appear that virtually every significant problem facing the USA and the world today can be traced back to the policies and people that came from the Reagan administration.
Reaganomics, the eclectic economic theory of the time, decreased taxes for the very rich, cut public expenditure on the poor, and increased military spending at an exponential rate. During his first term the annual federal deficit grew from 2.7 percent of GDP to 5.2 percent, and by the time he left office in 1988 the total national debt stood at some $2 trillion. This amount made Reagan the most profligate peacetime spender in the history of the Republic.
Reagan was unwilling to criticize any anti-communist governments, and he refused to support economic sanctions against the undemocratic government in South Africa. He vetoed a series of UN resolutions that attempted to punish the South African government and also tried to veto the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act that Congress passed in 1986. Yet, despite him, the system of apartheid fell and a semblance of justice emerged.
He funded anti-communist groups in Nicaragua who were fighting the elected government of Daniel Ortega, whose country also suffered from economic sanctions imposed by Reagan. He supported the war in Guatemala and the genocide of the Indian population there, as well as the war in El Salvador, where American nuns, among many others, were raped and murdered. It was later discovered that the Reagan administration had been selling arms to the Islamic fundamentalist government in Iran in order to gain the release of American hostages in Lebanon, and that the profits of the deal were used to supply the anti-Marxist Contra guerrillas fighting in Nicaragua. This scandal was damaging to Reagan because he had told the American public he would never "yield to terrorist blackmail."
The Reagan administration supported the Hussein regime despite its incredible record of atrocity, and in 1981 Reagan sent Donald Rumsfeld, his Middle East envoy, to Iraq. This resulted in Reagan selling Saddam Hussein "dual-use" items, including helicopters and chemicals, and it was the Reagan administration who sent the deadly bacterial agents to Iraq.
The Reagan administration also armed the Mojahedin in Afghanistan that eventually evolved into the Taliban. The Reaganites believed it an excellent idea to organize an army of Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union. And Osama bin Laden became the spiritual leader of this action. In 1998, two American embassies in Africa were blasted into rubble by the followers of bin Laden, and the Semtex originally sent to Afghanistan by the Reagan administration was used to do the job.
In 1983 Reagan gave his "Evil Empire" speech which called for a "crusade for freedom" against totalitarian regimes, and, later that year, he sent some 1,200 troops into Grenada when one Marxist killed and replaced another Marxist. The invasion was deemed by the UN General Assembly to be an unlawful intervention into the affairs of a sovereign state. The UN Security Council then discussed a resolution which, although receiving widespread support, was ultimately vetoed by the USA. Fourteen members of the Grenadian Government and three soldiers were arrested, tried and convicted. Leslie Pierre, the publisher and editor of the Grenadian Voice who was freed by American troops after being arrested by those accused, actually campaigned for the prisoners' release. He maintained that the court in which the Grenada 17 were tried (under American influence) was unconstitutional, and that the defendants were not allowed to see evidence which they could have used to point out discrepancies in the prosecution's case.
In 1987 Reagan met Mikhail Gorbachev, who made it clear he would no longer interfere in the domestic policies of other countries in Eastern Europe. Aware that Gorbachev would not send in Soviet tanks, the people of Eastern Europe demonstrated against their communist governments and over the next few months the communists were ousted from power in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and East Germany. Since all these events took place while Reagan was president, he got the credit for the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.
Unfortunately, the fall of Communism has dealt a mortal blow to Capitalism and to the USA in particular. For many decades, communism kept millions of people penniless and unable to compete for the world's most precious commodity - oil - while the U.S. guzzled cheap oil for over half a century. Now each barrel of oil that comes onto the market is being bid for by more people, including some three billion Asians, at a time when oil production is just beginning to peak. Then there is this little problem concerning the future of the Royal House of Saud, a staunch ally of the Protestant Crusaders. Osama bin Laden was Saudi born. So too were 15 of the 19 terrorists who slammed planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. When the planes hit, the news spread fast and millions of Saudi citizens partied in the streets. One wonders what kind of a democracy an "Operation Saudi Freedom" would produce? Some cycles are about to start and their influence will be far from positive for the world economy.
- Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) speech about the Iran Contra affair, March 4, 1987
When Ronald Wilson Reagan became the 40th President in 1981, America was a nation battered by Vietnam, damaged by Watergate, humiliated by Iran and looking for a hero. During his campaign Reagan promised a "patriotic crusade" to reduce the size and scope of government, to restore the traditional values of middle-class hometown America and to rebuild American military power in order to have "peace through strength."
He, together with his partner George Herbert Walker Bush, won two national elections, the second by a landslide of historic proportions, and by the time he left in 1988, "The Great Communicator" was seen by the Jabberwockies as being responsible for winning World War III, or "The Cold War," without firing a single shot, and for setting the scene for one of the longest periods of prosperity in American history.
Yet actions of men have unintended consequences, and now it would appear that virtually every significant problem facing the USA and the world today can be traced back to the policies and people that came from the Reagan administration.
Reaganomics, the eclectic economic theory of the time, decreased taxes for the very rich, cut public expenditure on the poor, and increased military spending at an exponential rate. During his first term the annual federal deficit grew from 2.7 percent of GDP to 5.2 percent, and by the time he left office in 1988 the total national debt stood at some $2 trillion. This amount made Reagan the most profligate peacetime spender in the history of the Republic.
Reagan was unwilling to criticize any anti-communist governments, and he refused to support economic sanctions against the undemocratic government in South Africa. He vetoed a series of UN resolutions that attempted to punish the South African government and also tried to veto the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act that Congress passed in 1986. Yet, despite him, the system of apartheid fell and a semblance of justice emerged.
He funded anti-communist groups in Nicaragua who were fighting the elected government of Daniel Ortega, whose country also suffered from economic sanctions imposed by Reagan. He supported the war in Guatemala and the genocide of the Indian population there, as well as the war in El Salvador, where American nuns, among many others, were raped and murdered. It was later discovered that the Reagan administration had been selling arms to the Islamic fundamentalist government in Iran in order to gain the release of American hostages in Lebanon, and that the profits of the deal were used to supply the anti-Marxist Contra guerrillas fighting in Nicaragua. This scandal was damaging to Reagan because he had told the American public he would never "yield to terrorist blackmail."
The Reagan administration supported the Hussein regime despite its incredible record of atrocity, and in 1981 Reagan sent Donald Rumsfeld, his Middle East envoy, to Iraq. This resulted in Reagan selling Saddam Hussein "dual-use" items, including helicopters and chemicals, and it was the Reagan administration who sent the deadly bacterial agents to Iraq.
The Reagan administration also armed the Mojahedin in Afghanistan that eventually evolved into the Taliban. The Reaganites believed it an excellent idea to organize an army of Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union. And Osama bin Laden became the spiritual leader of this action. In 1998, two American embassies in Africa were blasted into rubble by the followers of bin Laden, and the Semtex originally sent to Afghanistan by the Reagan administration was used to do the job.
In 1983 Reagan gave his "Evil Empire" speech which called for a "crusade for freedom" against totalitarian regimes, and, later that year, he sent some 1,200 troops into Grenada when one Marxist killed and replaced another Marxist. The invasion was deemed by the UN General Assembly to be an unlawful intervention into the affairs of a sovereign state. The UN Security Council then discussed a resolution which, although receiving widespread support, was ultimately vetoed by the USA. Fourteen members of the Grenadian Government and three soldiers were arrested, tried and convicted. Leslie Pierre, the publisher and editor of the Grenadian Voice who was freed by American troops after being arrested by those accused, actually campaigned for the prisoners' release. He maintained that the court in which the Grenada 17 were tried (under American influence) was unconstitutional, and that the defendants were not allowed to see evidence which they could have used to point out discrepancies in the prosecution's case.
In 1987 Reagan met Mikhail Gorbachev, who made it clear he would no longer interfere in the domestic policies of other countries in Eastern Europe. Aware that Gorbachev would not send in Soviet tanks, the people of Eastern Europe demonstrated against their communist governments and over the next few months the communists were ousted from power in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and East Germany. Since all these events took place while Reagan was president, he got the credit for the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.
Unfortunately, the fall of Communism has dealt a mortal blow to Capitalism and to the USA in particular. For many decades, communism kept millions of people penniless and unable to compete for the world's most precious commodity - oil - while the U.S. guzzled cheap oil for over half a century. Now each barrel of oil that comes onto the market is being bid for by more people, including some three billion Asians, at a time when oil production is just beginning to peak. Then there is this little problem concerning the future of the Royal House of Saud, a staunch ally of the Protestant Crusaders. Osama bin Laden was Saudi born. So too were 15 of the 19 terrorists who slammed planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. When the planes hit, the news spread fast and millions of Saudi citizens partied in the streets. One wonders what kind of a democracy an "Operation Saudi Freedom" would produce? Some cycles are about to start and their influence will be far from positive for the world economy.
