Homer Alaska - Letters

Do you know who the president of Nicaragua is today? Daniel Ortega. Do you know who Daniel Ortega was? He was the head of the Sandinista government in Nicaragua in the 1980s for whom Ronald Reagan secretly armed the bloody Contras in an attempt to get rid of him and the Sandinista Party.

Remember all the cocaine that the Contras helped smuggle into this country to finance themselves for which the Reagan administration turned a blind eye? Do you remember the tow and hawk missiles Ronald Reagan sold to Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini to further help the Contras' cause? Do you remember how it erupted into the Iran Contra scandal for which Ronald Reagan almost got himself impeached? He should have been.

What bloody irony, isn't it, that today Daniel Ortega as head of the Sandinista Party, by election, presides over Nicaragua as president.

But even more bloody ironic is it that the Mujahidin, who Reagan supported in Afghanistan in the 1980s, should have morphed into al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Anyway, I'm sure if Osama bin Laden should ever, God forbid, come to power, he'll have us be celebrating Ronald Reagan Day.

Tim O'Leary