Ivan's Place
In honor of the greatest moralist who never lived
Copyright © 2004 by Bill Becker

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Open Letter to Michael Reagan
Copyright © 2006 by Bill Becker



Dear Mike,

I just read your polemic against the Iraqi insurgents who killed and mutilated Pfc. Kristian Menchaca and Pfc. Thomas Tucker ("A Time For Rage", Foothills Sun-Gazette, June 29, 2006. Opinion) Ironically, I had just finished reading another, virtually identical account of atrocious murder:

The "decomposing bodies [were] covered with rocks and logs, and [were located] by their smell. All the remains showed signs of torture: cut out tongues, stab wounds, empty eye sockets, severed fingers and toes, castration. Most of the dead had been tortured so badly that they were difficult to identify.” *
It was 1985, and these victims were only a few of the thousands of Nicaraguan civilians — the vast majority were poor peasants — murdered in similar fashion. They were killed by the contras. And, as you know, Mike, the man who provided the contras with the materials, the training, and above all, the moral support they needed to carry out their atrocities was your very own father: President Ronald Reagan.

Do you look back in "outrage" on your father's monstrous crime against the Nicaraguan people, Mike? Something tells me that you don't. Indeed, aren't you quite selective about which atrocities deserve your outrage and which don't? Isn't your "outrage" against the Sunni insurgents merely the anger felt by the bully when his victim doesn't respond with abject servility?

Isn't the outrage you feel against those of us who oppose this criminally misconceived war really a reaction to having been wrong about virtually every important aspect of it: no jubilant throngs welcoming their liberators; no weapons of mass destruction; too few troops to secure post-invasion Iraq?

Do the angry outbursts of parents who now know that their beloved children died for a lie remind you of the lies your father told so as to justify the atrocious killings of defenseless Nicaraguan peasants? Is that why you slander them? Do you feel guilty because so many of the men who helped your father kill innocent Nicaraguans are now helping President Bush kill innocent Iraqis. I'll bet that's what we would find if we put you on the couch, Mike.

Millions of Americans know that the torture-killings of Pfc. Menchaca and Pfc. Tucker, to say nothing of the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqis, were absolutely unnecessary. You know it too, Mike, and your "outrage" makes you the Prince of Hypocrites.

With all due respect,
Bill Becker

*  KIDNAPPED BY THE CONTRAS — The Peace Flotilla on the Rio San Juan, Nicaragua.     Witness for Peace Documentation Project, August, 1985



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