Dissenting on Reagan on Latin America

[struggle4progress]

Press Release: Council on Hemispheric Affairs

<snip>
The Reagan White House showed far more interest in narrowly defined national security concerns than authentic democratization, social justice and anti-poverty efforts.
<snip>
The former president’s hemispheric foreign policy initiatives were characterized by simple-minded formulations, unprovoked aggression and unflinching embrace of some of Latin America’s most unsavory dictators, all in the name of anti-Communism.
<snip>
One can respect Reagan’s life and his patriotism, but one can’t easily forgive and forget the tens of thousands of innocent victims who lost their lives because of his extremism when it came to the fight against Latin American membership in the so-called evil empire.
<snip>
While the Iran-contra affair may be in the distant past, the dangerous brand of quasi-legal and ideologically driven foreign policy initiatives it represented is undoubtedly alive today. Then, as now, selective memory, multiple spin and protestations of patriotism are the substitutes being offered for responsible policy-making. America has had many great presidents. To pretend that Mr. Reagan was one of them represents an arrant miscarriage of responsible analysis and journalism, does his truly great predecessors a grave disservice, and provides further evidence that much of the U.S. media is most comfortable on bended knees.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0406/S00109.htm

[acmavm]

1. I think this comic explains what they mean about the press.

I hope this works.

[struggle4progress]

2. Indeed!