NEWSMAX.COM
Libs' New Tack:
Blame Reagan for bin Laden
Driven half-crazy
by five days' worth of tributes to Ronald Reagan, some liberals have finally snapped and are now blaming the American icon for
the rise of Osama bin Laden. On Democrats.com - a Web site
run byrefugees from the Clinton-Gore administration
- one liberal academic writes: "Although it would be an exaggeration to say that
Ronald Reagan created al Qaeda, it would not be a vast exaggeration. ... By the mid-1980s,
Reagan was giving the holy warriors half a billion dollars a year. His officials
strong-armed the Saudis into matching the US contribution, so that Saudi Intelligence
chief Faisal al-Turki turned to Osama Bin Laden to funnel the money to the Afghans."
Actually, WABC Radio's resident communist Ron Kuby has been arguing that bin Laden
was Reagan's fault since the moment he hit the airwaves on Monday.
But by Wednesday, even mainstream liberal venues had begun to
incorporate the claim into their storyline. Wednesday morning
the Washington Post front-paged an analysis on Reagan's Legacy that contained
this gem: "Following in the footsteps
of the Democratic Carter administration, Reagan surreptitiously
supported mujaheddin rebels in Afghanistan in their prolonged battle
against occupying Soviet forces. As part of that initiative, he
CIA supported Muslim radicals from other Islamic countries.
One of the
first non-Afghan volunteers to join the ranks of the mujaheddin was Osama bin Laden."
By
mid-morning the Post's report was featured prominently on MSNBC.com.
Even Reagan critics on
the other side of the Atlantic have picked up this theme.
Here's
how Glasgow's Herald newspaper handled it: "Of course, there was
his support to Osama bin Laden, now U.S. public enemy number one.
The Reagan administration
channeled millions of dollars and sophisticated training to bin Laden and the Afghan
Arabs to help them in their struggle against the Soviet invasion, with no thought being
given as to what bin Laden might do with all the training and weaponry afterwards.
We know now, don't we?" A Reuters report
also featured a paragraph contending that Reagan had helped bin Laden. Of
course, if the same logic was applied to FDR's relationship with "Uncle Joe" Stalin, journalists might blame him
today for the deaths of nearly 100,000 Americans who died fighting Cold
War battles in Vietnam and Korea. But if the Washington Post has ever front-paged
that analytical tidbit, somehow we missed. None of the aforementioned media outlets, by the way, have
seen fit to report Bill Clinton's admission two years ago that he turned down a chance for the U.S. to take the 9/11 mastermind into
custody. Clinton even noted at the time that he nixed bin
Laden's arrest. "though we knew he wanted to commit crimes against America."
(Ole "Slick Willie" was probably too "busy" with Monica.)
No wonder frustrated Democrats want Ronald Reagan to take the fall for this one.