In Central America, Reagan Remains a Polarizing Figure

[Southpaw Bookworm]

No shit. If he had been responsible for supporting the terrorists who raped and killed my family members, I'd probably be first in line to piss on his grave.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29546-2004Jun9.html

SAN SALVADOR -- Gerson Martinez, a rebel leader in the 1980s, remembers Ronald Reagan as the man who funneled $1 million a day to a repressive and often brutal Salvadoran government whose thugs and death squads killed thousands of people, including the mother of his two children.

Ricardo Valdivieso, a businessman and a founder of El Salvador's main conservative political party, said Reagan "saved Central America" and was "a great ray of light and hope for civilization and liberty in a dark hour for our country."

The memory of the 40th U.S. president, who served from 1981 to 1989, is still strong in the region, and the contrasting views are passionate and polarizing.

The United States was heavily involved in wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala in the 1980s in what Reagan described as an effort to stem Soviet influence in the hemisphere. The United States spent more than $4 billion on economic and military aid during El Salvador's civil war, in which more than 75,000 people were killed, many of them civilians caught in the crossfire.

[Octafish]

1. Here's how I remember Ronnie.

Click on each name for more...

http://www.hereinreality.com/irancontra.html

[RBHam]

2. A polarizing figure?

How about "War Criminal"? That would fit better. If the buck is supposed to stop at the Prez's desk - he was responsible for the deaths of THOUSANDS of innocent men, women and children...

May he rot in hell, and keep it warm for the Bush Crime Family and their murderous minions.