The Lions of Allah
22-08-2004, 16:47
Great Article from Al-Jazeerah (no not the news service - another site dedicated to atrocities in Palestine and elsewhere):
Celebrating Murder: The Reagan Funereal
By Mike Whitney
Al-Jazeerah, June 13, 2004
“Reagan’s duty was to smile, to read from the teleprompter in a pleasant voice, tell a few jokes and keep the audience properly bemused. His only qualification for the presidency was that he knew how to read the lines written for him by the rich folk, who pay well for the service.” Noam Chomsky
America loves to celebrate its murderers; the Reagan funereal proves that quite convincingly.
It is a mystery that a nation that professes a strong commitment to the rule of law could show such reverence for a man who killed an estimated 100,000 people during his tenure as president.
Am I missing something?
Reagan’s secret war in Nicaragua alone killed approximately 50, 000 people. These were not communist paramilitaries “driving towards Texas” to attack the US, but simple farmers and townsfolk who got in the way of American aggression.
The war wasn’t even directed at the Sandinista government; a government which (by the way) was elected by 62% of the popular vote. (a considerably larger margin than our current president)
No, it was aimed at the schools, the hospitals, the water towers, the food supply, the harbors; anything that might disrupt the lives of the average Nicaraguan; a strategy that involved undermining all the institutions in the society to achieve its goal of “regime change”. It was a “campaign of terror”, authored and sanctioned by the White House.
This is how Reagan operated. No one disputes that.
The Congress understood the criminality of Reagan’s illegal war, that’s why they passed the Bolin amendment that forbade him from arming the Contras (the remnants of former dictator Antonio Somosa’s brutal security apparatus) and sending them back into Nicaragua to attack “soft targets”; a CIA euphemism for infrastructure.
Reagan, of course, was never deterred by something as inconsequential as the law. He pursued his covert war in flagrant violation of the Congress and eventually toppled the Sandinista government; plunging Nicaragua into 20 years of economic turmoil from which it still has not recovered. (Nicaragua remains the second poorest country in the hemisphere due to Reagan’s intervention)
Author John Pilger who visited Nicaragua during the conflict remembers,
“…morning after morning, I saw bodies killed by Reagan's clients, including pregnant women. In its attacks on Nicaragua, Reagan's "contra" forces specialized in slitting the throats of midwives and children as they slept. The military unit "used shock and suffocation devices in interrogations. Prisoners often were kept naked and, when no longer useful, killed and buried in unmarked graves."
This is the real story of our 40th President, not the lofty fables that are being spun at his funereal. He was a pathological “commie hater” who endorsed CIA terror activity wherever it suited his ideological objectives. (The US is the only country in the world to be convicted by the World Court for “acts of terrorism” for its behavior in Nicaragua)
It’s understandable that the current cast of characters in the White House would want to elevate Reagan to sainthood; many of them were participants in his first administration. Things haven’t changed; they’ve only accelerated.
That’s why it’s important to understand what Reagan was all about, because the Bush administration is just the continuation of the very same policies. They share the same blatant disregard for treaties, conventions, protocols or any other imaginable legal restraint. Our present involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti and Columbia hearken back to a philosophy that was honed during the Reagan years; a philosophy that has now come into full flower.
There’s a straight line between the “shining city on the hill” and Abu Ghraib; it is the culmination of the Reagan world view.
The shameless deification of Reagan is an attempt to vindicate the murderous policies now unfolding across the globe. That’s why the ceremonies have seemed so transparently false and pompous. They’re an expression of the narcissism of petty crooks and tyrants.
The funereal had all the glamour of a mob wedding; with plenty of tacky symbols to substitute for any real emotion.
It was a fitting tribute a man who hid behind his good looks and cheerful demeanor his entire life.
The real Reagan was quite different; just ask someone in Nicaragua
Celebrating Murder: The Reagan Funereal
By Mike Whitney
Al-Jazeerah, June 13, 2004
“Reagan’s duty was to smile, to read from the teleprompter in a pleasant voice, tell a few jokes and keep the audience properly bemused. His only qualification for the presidency was that he knew how to read the lines written for him by the rich folk, who pay well for the service.” Noam Chomsky
America loves to celebrate its murderers; the Reagan funereal proves that quite convincingly.
It is a mystery that a nation that professes a strong commitment to the rule of law could show such reverence for a man who killed an estimated 100,000 people during his tenure as president.
Am I missing something?
Reagan’s secret war in Nicaragua alone killed approximately 50, 000 people. These were not communist paramilitaries “driving towards Texas” to attack the US, but simple farmers and townsfolk who got in the way of American aggression.
The war wasn’t even directed at the Sandinista government; a government which (by the way) was elected by 62% of the popular vote. (a considerably larger margin than our current president)
No, it was aimed at the schools, the hospitals, the water towers, the food supply, the harbors; anything that might disrupt the lives of the average Nicaraguan; a strategy that involved undermining all the institutions in the society to achieve its goal of “regime change”. It was a “campaign of terror”, authored and sanctioned by the White House.
This is how Reagan operated. No one disputes that.
The Congress understood the criminality of Reagan’s illegal war, that’s why they passed the Bolin amendment that forbade him from arming the Contras (the remnants of former dictator Antonio Somosa’s brutal security apparatus) and sending them back into Nicaragua to attack “soft targets”; a CIA euphemism for infrastructure.
Reagan, of course, was never deterred by something as inconsequential as the law. He pursued his covert war in flagrant violation of the Congress and eventually toppled the Sandinista government; plunging Nicaragua into 20 years of economic turmoil from which it still has not recovered. (Nicaragua remains the second poorest country in the hemisphere due to Reagan’s intervention)
Author John Pilger who visited Nicaragua during the conflict remembers,
“…morning after morning, I saw bodies killed by Reagan's clients, including pregnant women. In its attacks on Nicaragua, Reagan's "contra" forces specialized in slitting the throats of midwives and children as they slept. The military unit "used shock and suffocation devices in interrogations. Prisoners often were kept naked and, when no longer useful, killed and buried in unmarked graves."
This is the real story of our 40th President, not the lofty fables that are being spun at his funereal. He was a pathological “commie hater” who endorsed CIA terror activity wherever it suited his ideological objectives. (The US is the only country in the world to be convicted by the World Court for “acts of terrorism” for its behavior in Nicaragua)
It’s understandable that the current cast of characters in the White House would want to elevate Reagan to sainthood; many of them were participants in his first administration. Things haven’t changed; they’ve only accelerated.
That’s why it’s important to understand what Reagan was all about, because the Bush administration is just the continuation of the very same policies. They share the same blatant disregard for treaties, conventions, protocols or any other imaginable legal restraint. Our present involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti and Columbia hearken back to a philosophy that was honed during the Reagan years; a philosophy that has now come into full flower.
There’s a straight line between the “shining city on the hill” and Abu Ghraib; it is the culmination of the Reagan world view.
The shameless deification of Reagan is an attempt to vindicate the murderous policies now unfolding across the globe. That’s why the ceremonies have seemed so transparently false and pompous. They’re an expression of the narcissism of petty crooks and tyrants.
The funereal had all the glamour of a mob wedding; with plenty of tacky symbols to substitute for any real emotion.
It was a fitting tribute a man who hid behind his good looks and cheerful demeanor his entire life.
The real Reagan was quite different; just ask someone in Nicaragua