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Rethinking
Iran-Contra
by Robert Parry
The conventional view of
the Iran-Contra scandal is that it covered the period 1985-86,
when President Ronald Reagan became concerned about the fate of
American hostages in
Lebanon and agreed to secretly sell weapons to Iran’s Islamist
government to gain its help
in freeing the captives.
But an accumulating body
of evidence suggests that the traditional view of Iran-Contra was
mistaken, that this conventional understanding of the scandal was like
starting a novel in the
middle and assuming you’re reading the opening chapter.
Indeed, it now appears
clear that the Iran-Contra Affair began five years earlier in 1980,
with what has often been treated as a separate controversy, called the
October Surprise case,
dealing with alleged contacts between Reagan’s presidential campaign
and Iran.
In view of the latest
evidence – and the
crumbling of the long-running October Surprise cover-up
– there appears to have been a single Iran-Contra narrative spanning
the entire 12 years of the
Reagan and Bush-41 administration, and representing a much darker story.
And it was not simply a
tale of Republican electoral skullduggery and treachery, but possibly
even more troubling, a story of rogue CIA officers
and Israel’s Likud hardliners sabotaging
a sitting U.S. president, Jimmy Carter.
Plus, with Washington’s
failure to get at the larger truth about the Iran-Contra Affair,
crucial patterns
were set: Republicans acted aggressively, Democrats behaved timidly,
and the U.S. national news media
was transformed from Watergate-era watchdogs, to lapdogs and finally to
guard dogs protecting national
security wrongdoing.
In that sense, the
Iran-Contra/October Surprise scandal represented the missing link in a
larger
American political narrative covering the sweep of several decades,
explaining how the United States
shifted away from a nation grappling with epochal problems, from energy
dependence and
environmental degradation to bloated military budgets and an obsession
with empire.
Since Hillary wasn't involved in
this, Parry keeps his head and tells the truth.
Besides the criminals who did all the law-breaking, I don't know of
anyone who knows
more about the Bush bastards' Iran-Contra crimes than Robert Parry.
And shame on our whore media for
not caring that Reagan sold weapons to terrorists
and not caring that Reagan and Bush illegally stole power by promising
weapons to
terrorists after Reagan promised he would get John Wayne tough on them.
Because the media is controlled by
rich Rethugs who want tax cuts and freedom to rape
and pillage the helpless, and because the pussy Democrats refuse to
list the facts, history
will say Carter was an ineffective moron while Reagan's John Wayne act
saved the day.
Sidebar:
Most people don't know that Bush the Smarter was president for 11 years
and ten months.
Reagan was only president for 70 days, from January 20th until March
30th.
Reagan's official biographer said after getting shot, Reagan figured
God was telling him
to smell the roses so he turned power over to Bush and the Bush
bastards took over while
Reagan cut ribbons and met with the Boy Scouts and sports teams in the
Oval Office.
And
just for history's sake, we'll mention that Kneel Bush had dinner with John Hinckley's
brother the night before
Hinckley put a bullet an inch from Reagan's heart.
But people who read bartcop.com and consortiumnews.com know the truth.
They know Reagan and the Bush
bastards stole power and coddled terrorists for more power
and eventually, the Bush bastards used their clout to steal untold
trillions of dollars and got away
with it because the on-the-payroll whore press looked the other way and
the Democrats were
too busy wetting themselves in fear to give a goddamn about their
country or its future.
"Lee Hamilton is good people."