Reagan, GOP electoral politics, and Iran

[code1211]

Iran's mullahs depend on the American right to saber rattle so that the Mullahs can tell the Iranian people that America is about to go to war with them.

Meanwhile we know that Reagan and the Mullahs conspired to defeat Carter 1980 relection bid and to arm terrorists, too.

Republicans seem to love Reagan despite all that.

Nobody whyo understands the modern GOP is surprised that they did this, Londoner

We all know neocons put party before country

Are there any "Party Faithful" that do not?

 

[code1211]

One of the most troubling alliances over the past 50 years is the one between Reagan and Iran. This relationship came to light during Iran Contra when it was revealed that Reagan sold weapons to Iran to fund terrorist rebels in South America.

The most troubling aspect of the relationship was the meetings that members of Reagan's team had with Iranian officials (mostly by proxy) while Carter was still in office. Reagan's team basically said they would "play ball" with Iran (which they did) whereas Carter was treating them as an enemy. This lead to the delayed release of the hostages, and it set the stage for 6 years of back-door negotiations between Reagan & Iran (which came to light during the Iran-Contra trial).

Iran is about to topple Obama through the coming gas spike.

The allegations that Reagan had dealing with Iran before taking office have been investigated and exposed as pure bunk. It's up there with Truthers and Birthers in batshit crazy land.

It's also dishonest to say that the Hostage Crisis is what did Carter in. What did Carter in was gas lines (where he tried to manage the crisis by rationing gasoline instead of increasing production) double digit inflation, double digit unemployment, double digit interest rates, along with the fact John Anderson gave liberals somewhere else to go.

If it had not been for the hostage crisis (which Carter could have ended in five minutes by handing over the Shah) Teddy Kennedy would have stolen the nomination from him. He called it "The Rose Garden Strategy" of looking presidential while Teddy nipped at his heels. Carter tried to pull the same shit with Reagan, but people weren't buying it.

Now, at the risk of entertaining more batshit crazy, we have this.

I have a question. How much do Republicans know about Iran-Contra? After all, Reagan is the father of the New Right. He is arguably one of the two or three most important and respected Conservative presidents in US history. He based his presidency on fighting evil-doers, he was a vocal opponent of terrorism, yet much of his presidency rotated around a partnership with Iran, the leading terrorist state.

How much do Republican voters know about Reagan's relationship to Iran? Do they know anything about Reagan's relationship to Hussein? Or the fact that he singled-handedly removed Iraq from the official list of terrorist nations?

Why is this part of the Reagan presidency suppressed? It is very easily researched. What don't we know about Iran, Reagan, and electoral politics?

Iran-Contra happened because there were hostages in Lebanon, and he sold obsolete weapons to the Iranians at four times their market value to get those folks out. The Democrats tried to make hay out of it, but all it took was the daughter of one hostage saying, "Thank you for saving my daddy" to shut those fucks up.

As for Iraq- Yup, Hussein fooled the world. Not just Reagan, but the entire world into thinking he was a reasonable, secular leader who was modernizing his country and was the bullwark against the crazy Mullahs in Iran. The real problem in the Middle East is that we are trying to run it by proxy, as occupying it colonially bankrupted Europe. But Proxies have their own agendas.

In view of the apparent mind set of most of the nut jobs in the Middle East, suddenly Saddam ain't looking so bad.

We're staring down the barrel of a Theocracy that extends from the Straits of Gibralter to India. Not much different than the Dark Ages.

It's looking like World War is inevitable and the Persian theocracy in Iran is the tip of the spear.

 

[JoeB131]

In view of the apparent mind set of most of the nut jobs in the Middle East, suddenly Saddam ain't looking so bad.

We're staring down the barrel of a Theocracy that extends from the Straits of Gibralter to India. Not much different than the Dark Ages.

It's looking like World War is inevitable and the Persian theocracy in Iran is the tip of the spear.

I don't worry about that so much.

The Theocrats in Iran are Shi'ites. Most of the rest of the Islamic world is Sunni. They simply aren't going to find that much common cause beyond a dislike of Westernism and Zionism.

Fact is, Shi'a doesn't extend beyond the boundries of the Old Persian Empire..

Wahabism (which Bin Laden belonged to) is probably a bigger threat.

BUt as long as we keep our addiction to petroleum, we keep funding these nutbags.