They always mention Iran-Contra.
It's unfortunate that we had to lend a helping hand to the Contras covertly. If the congress hadn't been controlled by the soft-on-communism Democrats, funding the Contras would have been a formal, above-board part of American policy. The executive branch realized that it simply unacceptable for the marxist Sandinistas to establish a communist beach head on the American continent, but the legislative did not. So the executive was forced to go back-channel to get the job done. The root cause of Iran-Contra was the Democrat legislators and their ideological soft-spot for communists.
Also, didn't the pressure we put on the Sandinistas ultimately result in their ouster? It was years later (early 90's?), but the Sandinistas were finally purged in a free and fair democratic election. If we hadn't tinkered with things like we did down there, it's unlikely that there would have been this happy ending.
This is will be the gist of my retort to any lefty who cites Iran-Contra in order to smear President Reagan and his administration.
Knowledgable Freepers -- is there anything I should add or subtract from this? Will this hold water? Would you recommend any tweaks?
You might add that 49 dimocRat representatives signed a letter of support and sent it to the Sandinista Presidente. Yes, in writing.
Spot on. If I might add -- because most responsible are still proud of their dishonorable behavior -- Congress was simply reprising it's execrable performance wrt to Indochina, when the left, including "mainstream" representatives and senators, insisted on abandoning Cambodia and South Vietnam to aggressive communist hegemony even AFTER Nixon had negotiated honorable peace accords with North Vietnam.
They claimed they were for "peace," they claimed they were for a negotiated extraction of American forces, and that they would still stand behind our beleaguered allies with aid and other resources, but this was a lie. When peace was at hand they worked as hard -- if not harder, and even more intentionally -- at losing the peace as they had at undermining the war effort. (Further comments here.)
Vietnam has taught us, the struggle for democracy in Central America has taught us, and now the fight in Iraq has taught us, that the capitulation crowd, proudly represented by the current presumptive Democrat candidate for President, can NEVER be trusted with America's security, or the security of any people seeking to attain or defend human liberty.
Yardstick!
Could you add something like " ...and Ollie North should have received the Congressional Medal of Honor instead of the bashing he took from the .... blah blah blah....
I, for one, have maintained that thought ever since the whole thing came to light.
Sailorman