What if the "Iranian" missiles are the same ones Reagan/Bush sold to Iran?

[NNN0LHI]

Maybe Iran is sending them back to us and the Israelis one at a time. The irony of it.

Don


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reagan/peopleevents/pande08.html

The Iran-Contra Affair

Ronald Reagan's efforts to eradicate Communism spanned the globe, but the insurgent Contras' cause in Nicaragua was particularly dear to him. Battling the Cuban-backed Sandinistas, the Contras were, according to Reagan, "the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers." Under the so-called Reagan Doctrine, the CIA trained and assisted this and other anti-Communist insurgencies worldwide.

Assisting involved supplying financial support, a difficult task politically after the Democratic sweep of congressional elections in November 1982. First Democrats passed the Boland Amendment, which restricted CIA and Department of Defense operations in Nicaragua specifically; in 1984, a strengthened Boland Amendment made support almost impossible. A determined, unyielding Reagan told National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane, "I want you to do whatever you have to do to help these people keep body and soul together."

What followed would alter the public's perception of the president dramatically. How "Iran" and "Contra" came to be said in the same breath was the result of complicated covert activities, all carried out, the players said, in the name of democracy.

In 1985, while Iran and Iraq were at war, Iran made a secret request to buy weapons from the United States. McFarlane sought Reagan's approval, in spite of the embargo against selling arms to Iran. McFarlane explained that the sale of arms would not only improve U.S. relations with Iran, but might in turn lead to improved relations with Lebanon, increasing U.S. influence in the troubled Middle East. Reagan was driven by a different obsession. He had become frustrated at his inability to secure the release of the seven American hostages being held by Iranian terrorists in Lebanon. As president, Reagan felt that "he had the duty to bring those Americans home," and he convinced himself that he was not negotiating with terrorists. While shipping arms to Iran violated the embargo, dealing with terrorists violated Reagan's campaign promise never to do so. Reagan had always been admired for his honesty.

The arms-for-hostages proposal divided the administration. Longtime policy adversaries Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and Secretary of State George Shultz opposed the deal, but Reagan, McFarlane and CIA director William Casey supported it. With the backing of the president, the plan progressed. By the time the sales were discovered, more than 1,500 missiles had been shipped to Iran. Three hostages had been released, only to be replaced with three more, in what Secretary of State George Shultz called "a hostage bazaar."

[Cooley Hurd]

1. There's a Wikipedia entry that says the missile that hit was a Silkworm...

...it's Wikipedia, so take it for what it's worth.:shrug:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silkworm_missile

The latest use of the missile occurred in July 2006 when Hezbollah fired two on an Israeli ship engaged in shelling the Beirut international airport. Only one of the two missiles hit the ship; the second accidentally sank an Egyptian trading ship.

[tocqueville]

3. an Iran-manufactured C-802 missile hit the ship

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/738695.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-802

a C802 has only a paymoad of 4165kg. A silkworm has a bout a half-ton. It would have sunk the ship.





the C802 is originally a chinese product

[Junkdrawer]

5. Well, then Israel needs to attack China...n/t

[tocqueville]

6. naah.... they are selling US weapons to China nt

[Junkdrawer]

7. My head hurts! It looks like the "They supplied the arms" argument...

has unwelcome side effects. Fortunately, that won't stop the Corporate Media. They'll solve the problem by simply ignoring anything that gets in the way of the "Iran is Evil" message.

[Yavin4]

12. Question about "they are selling US weapons to China"

First, China loans us money which we use to build weapons, and then we sell said weapons back to China. Is that correct? Or is this just a modern-day version of an Abbott & Costello routine?

[Syncronaut Seven]

10. Math check.

Not being critical, but a paymoad is hardly a lethal payload.

Also 1/2 ton = 1,000 lbs
1/2 metric ton = 1,100 Lbs
4165 Kg = 9163 Lbs, or 4.582 tons.
Just seemed incongruent, that's all. :o)

[Solo_in_MD]

11. 802s are considerably easier to maintain and lauch

than a Silkworm or Sunburn too.

[karlrschneider]

13. Uh, 4165 Kg is almost 5 tons...

??

[madokie]

2. more proof that there is reasons for us being where we are today

and it falls at the feet of the same cabal in the WH we have now, except it was the daddy instead of the son.

[checkmate1947]

4. Right on

we just never seem to learn, we are well on our way to another 54,000 and another wall

[madokie]

9. only goes to prove that experience means most

all us old guys and gals from the wall era could tell them that their plan is flawed, that its impossible to achieve the results they want, but no, no one listens to us, what do we know. My answer is what we know we learned first hand not from a book. You can't 'make' someone like you. Why is that not obvious to them?
I forgot, the crawford coward doesn't read.

[Laughing Mirror]

8. We arm both sides, so long as the checks don't bounce, we don't care

That's what the US is in business for. What else can you expect from a society that is so overwhelmingly militarized that about the only thing its factories churn out are instruments of war and death and destruction. What other products do we have to sell the world but missiles and bombs?

[NNN0LHI]

16. Everyone does the same thing. Its strictly business n/t

[NNN0LHI]

14. Notice the folks who accuse DUers of supporting the Islamists...

...never post to these threads?

Thats odd.

Don

[EFerrari]

15. And another thing.

If we provide support to Israel and there are 25K Americans in Lebanon, isn't that about the same as bombing your own people?

It just makes your explode.

Can't the Cabal find a way to rape the earth without bloodying it first?

They must be secretly immortal in a way I don't understand.