I was doing a little research on Robert Gates, the nominee to replace Donald Rumsfeld, when I came across an excellent Washington Post article from September 19, 1991. The article was written by Marjorie Williams and it appeared during the hearings for Gates’s confirmation as DCI. For those of you that are interested, you can read about Gates’s role in Iran-Contra in the Walsh Reports’ chapter on the subject.
Williams used the opportunity of the hearing to delve deeply into what the Iran-Contra Affair meant and why it unfolded and turned out as it did. I often had a problem with William’s work, but this article strikes me as one of the best I ever read on Iran-Contra. It’s really worth a read on a Friday night, so I recommend it.
One graf from the article kind of sums things up nicely.
We never decided what Iran-contra was, or why it mattered; whether it was a national disgrace, a set of discreet crimes, a policy struggle or a constitutional crisis. “There is no official reality of Iran-contra,” in the sardonic words of one Democratic hill aide, “other than, ‘the Democrats screwed it up.’ “
We did screw it up. Properly handled, it would have precluded Ronald Reagan going down in history as a great president worthy of having airports named after him. It would have precluded people like Poindexter, Gates, Powell, Abrams, and others from rising back from the dead to lead us into another foreign policy disaster.
We need to remember that lesson as we try to grapple with the current administration. All of the key players should be disqualif[ied] to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States, from here on out.
Here is one response: I’d just finished reading John Dean’s Worse than Watergate,, and indicated that I saw a connection with the Bush II gang. However, my well-educated daughter said that “the Iran-Contra affair was worse than Watergate.” She’s a reader and a thinker, so, obviously, something had gotten her ire up. I think she would agree with your conclusion, BooMan.
how’s that old adage go…oh, yeah
‘Fool me once , shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again’— dubya
close enough
I dunno, it didn’t seem so murky to me as Williams makes out. The thing I never understood was why Reagan wasn’t impeached for deliberately circumventing the express will of Congress and the law. And that Oliver North was a hero to many people — still is, I gather. I honestly don’t get it.
But then I never thought anyone would vote for Reagan for governor either.
first of all the Space Seeds episode of Star Trek is on TVLand. This is the episode that serves as the basis for the Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
Second of all, an impeachable offense is whatever Congress says it is at any given point in time. The Dems were just not up for impeaching a popular president over his over exuberance for fighting ‘commies’. They should have. But that is what happened.
OK, now I know what we’re poppin in the old VCR tonight. The teenager in the house has never seen Wrath of Khan!
Just to add that Bush Sr made a deal with the Iranians to take the hostages. This is well documented. This and running Anderson as a liberal was their strategy for defeating Jimmy Carter and the tragedy is not only that it worked, but that people like to characterize JC as a terrible president. IMHO he was one of the best, if not the best, in my lifetime.
Bush Sr. did not make a deal with the Iranians to take the hostages.
What is alleged is that Bush and Casey told the Iranians that they would give them arms for their fight against Saddam if they did not release the hostages until after the elections so Carter could not spring an October Surprise that would give him a last second bump in the polls. And while that theory has support from the KGB archives, it is not well established, but hotly disputed.
It is worth reading what Robert Parry has to say about this –
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/111406.html
I’m a little fuzzy on this, but I do remember that there was a Playboy interview with someone who was actually there when Bush Sr. met with some Iranian officials in Paris and made a deal with them to take the hostages AND keep them imprisoned until Carter was out of the White House.
But I defer to your superior knowledge of history, Booman.
no, not to take the hostages, only to keep them a little longer.
We need to remember that lesson as we try to grapple with the current administration. All of the key players should be disqualif[ied] to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States, from here on out.
Exactly. From here on out.
I would agree with your recommendation to prevent members of this administration from ever holding Federal public office again, but with one modification. It wasn’t just “key” players who allowed this perversion of our government to occur. Every lickspittle ‘Publican thug who accepted a position in the government and then did Dubya’s and Cheney’s bidding should be convicted and disallowed for the rest of their lives as well. I don’t want to see any of the 30-something thugs at the second and third-levels of this disaster coming back in twenty or thirty years. I want them gone from public life forever, period. We need to make sure that people like Feith, Negroponte, hell, even Cheney, who was young when all of Nixon’s crimes were being perpetrated, don’t ever pollute our government and public welfare again.
We’ll do the nation a world of good to do so. Most of them can be convicted for felonies, so they’ll be removed for good. And, as a lagniappe, the ‘Publican Party will find itself decapitated all in one fell stroke because of their overweening overstretch. Let them tussle with themselves over the resulting scraps of their lives. Let accountability ring out for once and for all.