"The United States," said Ronald Reagan, "is engaged in a war on terrorism, a war for freedom"
In his 'secret war' against Central America what is striking is the relentless lying.
A department of lying was set up under Reagan with the coy name, 'office of public diplomacy'.
Its purpose was to dispense 'white' and 'black' propaganda — lies — and to smear journalists who told the truth.
Almost everything Reagan himself said on the subject was false.
(snip)
The United States, said Ronald Reagan, "is engaged in a war on terrorism, a war for freedom"
How familiar it all sounds.
Merely replace Soviet Union and communism with al-Qaeda, and you are up to date.
And it was all a fantasy.
The Soviet Union had no bases in or designs on Central America; on the contrary, the Soviets were adamant in turning down appeals for their aid.
The comic strips of "missile storage depots" that American officials presented to the United Nations were precursors to the lies told by Colin Powell in his infamous promotion of Iraq’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction at the Security Council in 2003.
Whereas Powell’s lies paved the way for the invasion of Iraq and the violent death of at least 100,000 people, Reagan’s lies disguised his onslaught on Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala.
By the end of his two terms, 300,000 people were dead.
In Guatemala, his proxies – armed and tutored in torture by the CIA – were described by the UN as perpetrators of genocide.
There is one major difference today.
That is the level of awareness among people everywhere of the true purpose of Bush and Blair’s "war on terror" and the scale and diversity of the popular resistance to it.
In Reagan’s day, the notion that presidents and prime ministers lied as deliberate, calculated acts was considered exotic.
(snip)
~~~~~~~~~~~FATHER MIGUEL D'ESCOTO: First of all, let me start out by saying that, of course, Reagan is now dead.
And I, for one, would like to say only nice things about him.
I'm not insensitive to the feelings of many U.S. people mourning president Reagan, but as I pray that god in his infinite mercy and goodness forgive him for having been the butcher of my people, for having been responsible for the deaths of some 50,000 Nicaraguans, we cannot, we should not ever forget the crimes he committed in the name of what he falsely labeled freedom and democracy.
(snip/...)
http://www.thewe.cc/weplanet/news/americas/us/ronald_reagan.html