Any regular NPR listeners who are looking for an alternative to the relentless, uncritical review(s) of the Reagan years this week may want to check out Democracy Now! In the Seattle area, the show is aired from 6-7 am and 5-6 pm on KBCS (91.3 FM); other stations and times can be found on the Democracy Now! web site. Although I didn’t hear it on the radio, an article on their special “Remembering the Dead” section talks about “The Saddam in Rumsfeld’s Closet.” It appears that, at least during the Reagan administration, Donald Rumsfeld was more concerned about the threat of Islam than the threat of weapons of mass destruction.
The article concludes with the following summary:
In 1984, Donald Rumsfeld was in a position to draw the world’s attention to Saddam’s chemical threat. He was in Baghdad as the UN concluded that chemical weapons had been used against Iran. He was armed with a fresh communication from the State Department that it had “available evidence” Iraq was using chemical weapons. But Rumsfeld said nothing.
Washington now speaks of Saddam’s threat and the consequences of a failure to act. Despite the fact that the administration has failed to provide even a shred of concrete proof that Iraq has links to Al Qaeda or has resumed production of chemical or biological agents, Rumsfeld insists that “the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”
But there is evidence of the absence of Donald Rumsfeld’s voice at the very moment when Iraq’s alleged threat to international security first emerged. And in this case, the evidence of absence is indeed evidence.
I’m amazed that more than half (57%) of Americans believe that “before the war Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda”. I wonder how many would believe that “during the Reagan administration, the US provided substantial support to Saddam Hussein” and that Donald Rumsfeld played a key role in this support.
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For further fun Reagan memories, tune in to Cuba’s Radio Reloj:
http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2004/06/07/cuba/print.html
Cuba: Reagan should never have been born
June 7, 2004 | HAVANA (AP) — Cuba harshly criticized former President Ronald Reagan and his policies on Monday, saying he should “never have been born.”
In the first reaction to Reagan’s death from the communist government, Radio Reloj said:
“As forgetful and irresponsible as he was, he forgot to take his worst works to the grave,” the government radio station said.
“He, who never should have been born, has died,” the radio said.
The statement did not mention Cuba’s relationship with the United States under Reagan, a staunch foe of communism.
It also did not mention Reagan’s decision to order U.S. forces to invade the tiny Caribbean country of Grenada on Oct. 25, 1983, because Washington feared the island had grown too close to Cuba.
Since the early 1960s, Cuba and the United States have been without diplomatic relations, and Cuba has been under a U.S. trade embargo. But relations between the two countries were especially tense when Reagan was in office from 1981-1989.
Radio Reloj lambasted Reagan’s military policies, especially the “Star Wars” anti-missile program. The initiative, launched when the Soviet Union still existed, rejected a long-standing doctrine built on the idea that neither superpower would start a nuclear war out of fear of annihilation by the other.
The radio also criticized Reagan’s policies in Central America, where Washington backed a counterrevolutionary rebel army that fought against the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua. The United States also supported a conservative government that battled Marxist guerrillas during El Salvador’s civil war.
“His apologists characterize him as the victor of the Cold War,” the radio said. “Those in the know knew that the reality was not so, but rather (he was) the destroyer of policies of detente in the overall quest for peace.”