Ronald Reagan was not a good man.

[York Minster]

I'm sure to cause the ire of glennjridge here, but I have become increasingly disgusted with the legacy this "great" man left America. In particular, in my readings on foreign countries, I've been the most upset. Right now I'm reading about the civil war in El Salvador from 1980-1992. His administration supported ARENA, the wealthy 2 percent elite of the country, who had ruled El Salvador pretty much from it's beginnings against the FMLN "communists" fighting for indigionous rights and land reform, and well, some freedom. Here's an example of some of the things US money financed:

In the El Mozote Massacre "During the morning, [the right wing death squads] proceeded to interrogate, torture, and execute the men in several locations. Around noon, they began taking the women and older girls in groups, separating them from their children and machine-gunning them after raping them. Girls as young as 12 were raped, under the pretext of them being supportive of the guerillas. Finally, they killed the children. A group of children that had been locked in the church and its convent were shot through the windows.

None of these people were even involved with the fighting. Of course Dwight Eisenhower also fu$ked up Guatemala in a similar way after their reforms of the 1940s and 50s and led that country into a multi decade civil war that lasted until the 1990s. Reagan's economic policies were a horrible failure and even though the economy eventually got better during his administration, the Savings and Loan crisis was the result of his administrations deregulation. Why must we hold up this man as some great paragon of conservative thinking? Was it how he was anti ERA (equal rights amendment?) or how it was morning in america for the increasing poor of the country? Or because he charmed us all when he was shot by Hinckley? I'm glad I wasn't the age I am now in the 1980s. Because at least whereas Bush had a large segment of the population who questioned him (well, at least by the mid 2000s), it seems like in the Reagan years the democrats kind of just let Reagan have his way. God help us if we put this man on the 50 dollar bill. I will never spend one.

[glennjridge]

my ire? I dont remember anything about him other than he got shot,bombed libya and was in a movie with a chimpanze.

[York Minster]

bombed libya

Interesting how 9/11 changed our views on that country.

[glennjridge]

dont know what the change was regarding 9/11 and dont care.it didnt change my view.
Gaddafi sponsered terrorism against the US in the past and reagan sent some bombers to his house and his daughter got killed.

[York Minster]

and his daughter got killed.

Only his adopted daughter.

He also is hard line on the ultra jihadist extremists in the country, so that's why we're in more support.

[Flaffer]

He also is hard line on the ultra jihadist extremists in the country

so was Saddam Hussain

[whateverman42]

He was a puppet, like every president since JFK.

Reaganomics and Thatcherism occurring at the same time in different countries is supposed to be an accident, rather than a case of the elites getting their guys into power?

Although I must say he had a bit more backbone and more of his own ideas than Jimmy Carter and Obama. And I am a fan of ketchup, so he also has that going for him in my books.

[York Minster]

He was a puppet, like every president since JFK.

Oversimplfying at it's best. And what makes Truman and Eisenhower not puppets? Or Rutherford Hayes or John Tyler? (Well, actually John Tyler pissed off his own party pretty good). Everything is a god damn conspiracy with you isn't it.

[gregf]

The Reagen government was really a continuation of the Nixon administration.

It was a period when the US greatly increased coups, state terrorism, toruture and installation
of dictators who supported America. The CIA used to train the terrorists and death squads.
The CIA taught the Contra rebels in Nicaragua "go into the villages and cut the throats of
babies, that will demoralise the peasants. Kill the teachers and doctors, that will leave
the people leaderless".

I have personal knowledge of this period, knowing many young people who escaped US
sponsored torture. For example one girl I knew criticised the US backed government in
Guatemala. Her and her boyfriend were kidnapped by the US trained police. They killed
him, violently raped and tortured her, then threw her body in a ditch and set fire to it
with gasoline. She actually survived, although horribly disfigured. I met her.

This was wide spread across Central America during Reagen's administration, just as it
happened to South America, South East Asia and the Middle East at other times the
Republicans were in power. The same people went on to form the first and second Bush
administrations and are telling you today that Islam/Palestinians are to blame just as
they once said communists were to blame, or before that, the Jews or the Catholics.
The War against "Terror" is just the latest incarnation of what is basically a 50 year
excuse for conservative US corporations to seize economic assets.

In Reagen's 2nd term the US began to pour billions of dollars per month into raising
an army of Muslim insurgents in Afghanistan, purely to destabilise Russia. Ossama bin
Laden's training was paid for by Reagen.

For the record, I believe American and Israeli people are good people.
My argument is with conservatives who use fear, racism and ignorance and make billions
from the wars and conflicts they start.

Today the US navy has an aircraft carrier named the Ronald Reagen and everyone
speaks his name respectfully. It's all very sad when one thinks of the way the world could have been.

[raggatwin]

Just finished reading Francis Fukuyama. He claims that along with a lot of Neo Cons Reagan started out as a Trotskyist.....

[Dipso]

I am an EFL teacher in the UK and several of my students are Libyan. Today one of our topics of conversation was first memories. One of the students, a man aged in his late 20s, spoke very powerfully about his first memory, namely the US bombing of Libya in 1986. He described cowering under the bed with his mother and young siblings in terrified silence, listening to the bombs fall and windows blow out.

[Patrick Bateman]

Just finished reading Francis Fukuyama. He claims that along with a lot of Neo Cons Reagan started out as a Trotskyist.....

So did alig.

[whateverman42]

He was a puppet, like every president since JFK.

Oversimplfying at it's best. And what makes Truman and Eisenhower not puppets? Or Rutherford Hayes or John Tyler? (Well, actually John Tyler pissed off his own party pretty good). Everything is a god damn conspiracy with you isn't it.

Well, once you realize the Warren Commission insults the intelligence of a child its hard to believe Americans are in control of their government. Its more common sense. In 2004 both candidates came from the same ultra-selective and ultra-secretive secret society. Yep, anyone can become president.

[glennjridge]

The Reagen government was really a continuation of the Nixon administration.


The CIA taught the Contra rebels in Nicaragua "go into the villages and cut the throats of
babies, that will demoralise the peasants. Kill the teachers and doctors, that will leave
the people leaderless".

oh your so full of it greg.
I believe that about as much as I believe a UFO enthusiast claiming he has sources that know for a fact that area 51 is a secret UFO lab.

while I dont doubt the CIA funds....and supplys weapons and weapon training to groups to do this or that to whom it percieves as enemys of the united states)were all grown adults here,thats just what various countrys secret service does) the slitting babies throats and rape thing is all from your susceptable indoctrinated mind.

[York Minster]

Well, once you realize the Warren Commission insults the intelligence of a child its hard to believe Americans are in control of their government. Its more common sense. In 2004 both candidates came from the same ultra-selective and ultra-secretive secret society. Yep, anyone can become president.

Conspiracy conspiracy conspriacy. Yet look at your weak arguments you continue to make.

A commission insulted your intelligence? SHOCK! How about the Meese commission during the Reagan years? Not too good itself, yet, I don't use it to show that everyone is a puppet of some super rich controllers. Nope, nothing more than various interest groups, feminists, moral majority folk, and various social constructions. I don't deny that the 2004 candidates were horrible choices and have that background, and that the primary system and the conventions are highly flawed. But sometimes we get dark horses (Harding), sometimes we get country boys who really weren't ambitious to be president (Coolidge as Hardings vice). Sometimes we get a black man running against a women? No, not anyone can be president obviously not. I sure can't, I've said to much about incest. But you make no real argument at all, just a rant and an obsession. Why not look to more mundane facts of social institutions to see how power works? I don't think you could handle reading a reasonable work of sociology on power structure in America, you'd be too busy having wet dreams about conspiracy nonsense. Seriously, do you masturbate while thinking about this stuff?