| | | Conservative Hypocrisy Hits A New LOW
President Reagan Armed The Taliban, Saddam Hussein, and Traded Arms for Hostages with IRAN
Conservatives seem to have a very short memory when it comes to making deals with Terrorists.
-On Reagan, The Taliban, and Osama Bin Laden:
Reagan helped create the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. Reagan fought a proxy war with the Soviet Union by training, arming, equipping, and funding Islamist mujahidin fighters in Afghanistan. Reagan funneled billions of dollars, along with top-secret intelligence and sophisticated weaponry to these fighters through the Pakistani intelligence service. The Talbian and Osama Bin Laden — a prominent mujahidin commander — emerged from these mujahidin groups Reagan helped create, and U.S. policy towards Pakistan remains strainedbecause of the intelligence services’ close relations to these fighters. In fact, Reagan’s decision to continue the proxy war after the Soviets were willing to retreat played a direct role in Bin Laden’s ascendancy.
-On Reagan, Saddam and Chemical Weapons
It is important to remember times in history when the United States supplied dictators with weapons that are condemned today. President Reagan sent Donald Rumsfeld to broker a secret deal with Saddam Hussein. In the secret 90-minute meeting Rumsfeld arranged for Saddam Husseinto acquire sarin nerve gas, anthrax, bubonic plague, along with others. He also arranged for Iraq to receive billions of dollars in loans to pay for these weapons.
-On Reagan, Iran, and Arms for Hostages:
He declared: "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 is true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not."
Still, faced with the devastating conclusions of the Tower commission, his handpicked board of inquiry, Reagan went further than he has before, saying that his management style "didn't match its previous track record" and admitting that he did not ask enough questions of his aides.
"As the Tower board reported, what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated in its implementation into trading arms for hostages," Reagan said. ''This runs counter to my own beliefs, to administration policy, and to the original strategy we had in mind.
"There are reasons why it happened, but no excuses," Reagan said, adding: ''It was a mistake."
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