The purpose of the Contras was relatively well defined, and did not expand beyond that to my knowledge. If you have evidence that the Contras were used against the U.S. or morphed into something other than an anti-Sandinista force, I'd be interested to see it.
I've seen a lot of negative revisionism of the Reagan years, and while I'll admit that the mujahedeen in Afghanistan turned into a problem later, I don't think it's fair to say that about the Contras. Over time we've had problems in the US from gangs that are Salvadoran, Mexican, Venezuelan (lol: autocorrect really wanted that to be vegetarian gangs), Colombian and even Brazilian; practically anything but Nicaraguan. I believe the Contras contained Nicaraguan evil so that it stayed within its borders, and that we'd have seen greater problems without them.
Not really trying to convince you, but just wanted to register my disagreement about lumping them together in the same category. I think that if we had not checked the Sandinistas, we'd have seen Nicaragua evolve into another hub for launching anti-U.S. activity like how Venezuela did.
You may be right about this. The part that was compelling was "practically anything but Nicaraguan. I believe the Contras contained Nicaraguan evil so that it stayed within its borders, and that we'd have seen greater problems without them."
I haven't dug deeply into the Contra affair. From what I understand, Congress passed laws prohibiting the funding of Contras so Reagan sold arms to Iran and diverted the funds to Contras. Do you think this was deep state trying to hobble Reagan's ability to contain Nicaraguan Cabal assets?
What about the other side of the equation - selling arms to Iran? Didn't that directly fuel the Iran Iraq war?
In anycase, if there was one action of foreign "inerference" by US that actually helped the country rather than turn the country into a socialist dictator hellhole, it makes me happy. I do hope this is what happened in Nicaragua
My take is that Congress, working for the DS, was facilitating Nicaragua's communist takeover, and Reagan ignored them, or at least turned a blind eye as the military ignored them. While they didn't stop them entirely, as Nicaragua has gone back and forth since then, they meaningfully checked the DS-Communist power projection.
I think the Iranians would've got the weapons from someone anyway, and it was simply a convenient opportunity to get large amounts of untracked funds. I don't know that for a fact, but it's my guess.
In principle I agree that we shouldn't be funding foreign military or guerillas anywhere. But it was certainly an issue of coordinated encroachment funded by other nations against the U.S., and an expedient response by Reagan. It'll be great once Central Americans and other smaller countries around the world can have options beyond the extremes of a right wing military strongman or a socialist tyrant.
BTW, this also explains something I had stumbled upon when looking at the Contra briefly a while ago. Some of the names of people involved in exposing it was actually people connected to the DS. A bit like CIA MkUltra was exposed by Rockefeller commission.
Your theory explains this better. Thanks again for sharing this.
The purpose of the Contras was relatively well defined, and did not expand beyond that to my knowledge. If you have evidence that the Contras were used against the U.S. or morphed into something other than an anti-Sandinista force, I'd be interested to see it.
I've seen a lot of negative revisionism of the Reagan years, and while I'll admit that the mujahedeen in Afghanistan turned into a problem later, I don't think it's fair to say that about the Contras. Over time we've had problems in the US from gangs that are Salvadoran, Mexican, Venezuelan (lol: autocorrect really wanted that to be vegetarian gangs), Colombian and even Brazilian; practically anything but Nicaraguan. I believe the Contras contained Nicaraguan evil so that it stayed within its borders, and that we'd have seen greater problems without them.
Not really trying to convince you, but just wanted to register my disagreement about lumping them together in the same category. I think that if we had not checked the Sandinistas, we'd have seen Nicaragua evolve into another hub for launching anti-U.S. activity like how Venezuela did.
You may be right about this. The part that was compelling was "practically anything but Nicaraguan. I believe the Contras contained Nicaraguan evil so that it stayed within its borders, and that we'd have seen greater problems without them."
I haven't dug deeply into the Contra affair. From what I understand, Congress passed laws prohibiting the funding of Contras so Reagan sold arms to Iran and diverted the funds to Contras. Do you think this was deep state trying to hobble Reagan's ability to contain Nicaraguan Cabal assets?
What about the other side of the equation - selling arms to Iran? Didn't that directly fuel the Iran Iraq war?
In anycase, if there was one action of foreign "inerference" by US that actually helped the country rather than turn the country into a socialist dictator hellhole, it makes me happy. I do hope this is what happened in Nicaragua
My take is that Congress, working for the DS, was facilitating Nicaragua's communist takeover, and Reagan ignored them, or at least turned a blind eye as the military ignored them. While they didn't stop them entirely, as Nicaragua has gone back and forth since then, they meaningfully checked the DS-Communist power projection.
I think the Iranians would've got the weapons from someone anyway, and it was simply a convenient opportunity to get large amounts of untracked funds. I don't know that for a fact, but it's my guess.
In principle I agree that we shouldn't be funding foreign military or guerillas anywhere. But it was certainly an issue of coordinated encroachment funded by other nations against the U.S., and an expedient response by Reagan. It'll be great once Central Americans and other smaller countries around the world can have options beyond the extremes of a right wing military strongman or a socialist tyrant.
BTW, this also explains something I had stumbled upon when looking at the Contra briefly a while ago. Some of the names of people involved in exposing it was actually people connected to the DS. A bit like CIA MkUltra was exposed by Rockefeller commission.
Your theory explains this better. Thanks again for sharing this.