[Vision2020] Well, it really seemed like a good idea at the time *S*

[Donovan Arnold]

I don't like having to defend Reagan, but. . . 
 
The Taliban from Afghanistan in the 1980s are not the same as the Taliban of Pakistan in the 2000s. 
 
The Afghanistan Taliban was a group formed to fight off the USSR, which at the time, was bombing them and killing many thousands of innocent villagers.. The USA was enemies with the USSR and helped Afghanistan to stop the USSR from invading their country.
 
I don't know if the picture is real or not. But it is not the same Taliban as the one we know as terrorists in Pakistan. 
 
Sunil is correct about the origins of the quote;
 

"Battling the Cuban-backed Sandinistas, the Contras were, according to Reagan, 'the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers.' Under the so-called Reagan Doctrine, the CIA trained and assisted this and other anti-Communist insurgencies worldwide."
 
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reagan/peopleevents/pande08.html

Donovan Arnold

--- On Tue, 10/20/09, Wayne Price <bear at moscow.com> wrote:


From: Wayne Price <bear at moscow.com>
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Well, it really seemed like a good idea at the time *S*
To: "Sunil Ramalingam" <sunilramalingam at hotmail.com>
Cc: "vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2009, 8:44 PM



Sunil,


I'm not sure if that pic was photo shopped or not, but it really doesn't matter, as "good friends" and "allies"  are always painted in a rosey light at the time no matter how bad they turn out to be in fact.
For instance, our good friend and ally during WWII, the Soviet Union, had far more people  in concentration camps and caused far more deaths than the Nazi's ever thought of, but at the time, they were on "our" side.


And since most history of wars is written by the "winners", you tend to get a really warped idea of what really went on unless you're willing to delve into it.  I'll give you a good example to try. Next time you run into (not literally) a HS student, ask him or her when WWII begin, I'll bet you a lunch that they tell you, if they tell you anything at all, that it was December 7th, 1941. Few realize or are taught that the war started 1 September 1939 with the invasion of Poland, and then two weeks later, the Nazi Allies, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east.  How many people realize that Auschwitz  was set up not to house those of the Jewish faith, but was established to contain the Polish intelligencia? And while we bemoan the Nazi execution of around 84 US soldiers at Malmédy  during the battle of the Bulge,  we ignore the exceution of 21,768 Polish soldiers, educators and soldiers at Katyn by  the Soviets! We went so far as to deny
 the proof that was provided by the International Red Cross  at the time, because by the time the atrocity was discovered, the Soviets were our allies!




Wayne 






















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Wayne,

I believe Reagan said that about the Contras, not the Taliban.  Haven't Googled it, but I'd bet a beer or two.

I think he was wrong on that, though.

Sunil

> From: bear at moscow.com
> To: vision2020 at moscow.com
> Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:55:00 -0700
> Subject: [Vision2020] Well, it really seemed like a good idea at the time *S*
> 
> 
> 
> 
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