From Afghanistan to El Salvador
Reagan's Dark Global Legacy
By DENNIS HANS
Afghanistan. "Ronnie Poppy." This opium flower honors President Reagan's contribution to the explosive growth of the Afghan heroin industry in the 1980s through his unconditional support for the most extreme Islamic fundamentalists who were justifiably opposed to the murderous Soviet occupation....
Angola. "The Gipper Stump." This polished-oak peg leg features a heart-felt message from the Cold War commander-in-chief, who worked with the South African apartheid state to keep Jonas Savimbi and his UNITA terrorists armed and dangerous,.....
Argentina. "The Reagan Islands." Technically, the former Falkland/Malvinas Islands are no longer the property of Argentina, but Argentinians voted for the new name to honor Ronnie's role in the restoration of civilian rule in their country.....
Cambodia. "Reagan Skull Bag." This handy Khmer Rouge carrying sack holds up to 25 skulls. The Skull Bag recognizes the Reagan administration's unstinting support for Pol Pot's assaults on Cambodians from 1981 to 1989,.....
Costa Rica. "El Rancho Reagan." The former "front farm" of a CIA and contra collaborator, El Rancho Reagan is preserved in its mid-1980s pristine prime.....
El Salvador. "The Reagan Missionary Position." No, not a sexual position for raping American churchwomen (for that would be in poor taste), but a position as in a stand. The Reagan Missionary Position, formulated by high officials Al Haig and Jeane Kirkpatrick, is that the three nuns and one layworker were pro-Marxist "political activists" and thus hardly innocent.....
Guatemala. "The Reagan 'Bum Rap' Rap." Grandmaster Ronnie first laid down this rap in 1982 to discredit reports by Amnesty International and others of the army's slaughter of thousands of Indian villagers in the first months of General Efrain Rios Montt's rule.....
Honduras. "Reagan's Rascals." The crazy cut-ups of Battalion 316 comprised a secret unit of CIA-backed torturers and murderers. They rid Honduras of real and imagined subversives and dissidents,....
Haiti. "Ronnie Doc." Duvalier loyalists awarded Reagan the highest degree a Haitian can steal, the Doctor of Kleptocracy.....
Kurdistan. "Reagan Red Hot." Nothing's more appetizing than human skin drenched with mustard, or for that matter, mustard gas, which is what a "Reagan Red Hot" hot dog is.....
Laos. "Ronnie Rain." In the mountains of Laos, April showers dump bee feces on flowers. Ronnie Rain salutes the 1982 White House "Yellow Rain" disinformation campaign - spread by the demented Wall Street Journal editorial board.....
Lebanon. "The Reagan Wink." It's as good as a nod. Go into the home of any member of the Lebanese Phalange militia and you'll see a glossy photo of the handsome Gipper closing his right eye. In 1982, Reagan engineered the withdrawal of PLO soldiers from Beirut by guaranteeing the safety of Palestinian civilians left behind.....
Nicaragua. "The Reagan Wall." Modeled after the U.S. memorial to Americans who died in Vietnam, the Reagan Wall lists the names of the thousands of civilians murdered by "the moral equivalent of the Founding Fathers" (Ronnie's pet name for the contras).....
South Africa. "The Reagan White House." Not a replica of the Pennsylvania Avenue edifice but a Johannesburg mansion that harkens back to a simpler time when whiteness reigned supreme in Pretoria, to the delight of President Reagan. Pay the admission price of ten rand and hassle the black servants, demand to see their pass books, and interrogate the Nelson Mandela look-alike in the basement cell.....
Zaire. "Reagan Cane." Before he was chased into exile, President Mobutu Sese Seko high-stepped with this gold-encrusted walking stick. In its day, the Reagan Cane was ideal for maintaining balance or whacking a dissident.....
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