I agreed with Ronald Reagan on something.

[notbush]

Although I can't, and don't approve of the Iran contra funding scandal, I do agree that Danny Ortega was a scum bucket that never deserved to lead that country.
To the peasants who thought Somoza(sp?) was bad, Ortega turned out to be worse.Unfortunately he had agreed to democratic elections.Somoza never did.
The people quickly threw him out on his ass....and try as he might (even paying people to vote for him), he couldn't win an election.

[bluestateguy]

1. We had no business getting involved in Nicaragua

We should not have cozied up to the Contras, Somoza or the Sandinistas. Somoza was a dictator, the Contras were drug runners and terrorists, the Sandinistas were incompetent Marxists.

The US does not have to take sides in every conflict.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[notbush]

3. kick

because I'd REALLY like to hear someone defend Danny........which many democrats did at the time. Most later admitted their mistake.

[bluestateguy]

4. A Republic, not an Empire

It was fine to draw a line in the sand in Europe because there was a) a legitimate US security interest, and b) western European states embraced democratic principles. The tinpot dictatorships we supported through the ruse of the "containment" policy were more often than not at the behest of powerful business interests and multinational corporations that didn't give a damn about democracy and freedom.

I am old enough to remember the 1980's, and the sad thing about the Cold War was that it often aligned the US with some of the most despicable, fascist regimes around the world: El Salvador and their death squads, Guatemala, Honduras, Norriega's Panama, the white racists in South Africa, Marcos's Phillipines, the Arab Nazis in the House of Saud, the Afghan mujahadeen (better known as "pre-Al Qaeda"), "South Vietnam", Pinochet's Chile, the Contra rebels and Suharto's Indonesia.

Some may call this foreign policy, I call it Machiavellian bullshit that has only caused a whole new set of problems for future generations to deal with. They will say that the enemy of the enemy is my friend, but more often than not the enemy of the enemy proved to also be our enemy.

[notbush]

5. So explain to me the Democratic support of Mr. Ortega.

I'm not trying to discuss the history of the world....or even the cold war....I'm talking about Danny Ortega. My support of Reagan was specific.

[notbush]

6. 1 kick before I go to bed

I should have asked this question earlier.....

[bluestateguy]

7. You'll have to take that up with them

That's their position and not mine. I never argued that the US should have supported Ortega, so what some Democrats said in favor of Ortega is their responsibility, not mine.

[Michael Costello]

8. The US threatened Nicargua before the election

The United States government funded Ortega's election. Imagine if China 's government started pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the US to try and elect a candidate. The US government also openly threatened Nicaragua if the FLSN was re-elected. The idea that this was an independent decision, especially after a decade of US terrorist attacks on Nicaragua, funding contra slaughters, mining harbors and so forth with the addition of US threats and massive US influx of campaign funds for the opposition, is a joke.

Any American who thinks they can take the moral high ground on someone in Central America after the bloody, evil terrorism and barbarity that the US government was responsible for there for decades perplexes me. It rings in my ear like the former Nazi high command complaining about Israel. I could really give a damn what negative opinion people have on the FLSN movement. Perhaps all of the slaughtered peasants, priests, nuns, archbishops, teachers and so forth in Central America will cheer you up, your side has been successful in making the peasants there miserable, so you can take comfort in the fact that so far you've been winning.