Gates No Better Than Rumsfeld

While the roars cheers coming from the Democratic caucus are still reverberating around the nation, there is little attention being made towards the fact that the Democrats have just dropped the ball and their not even in office yet. Yesterday, George Bush's choice to replace Donald Rumsfeld, Robert Gates was confirmed as the next secretary of defense by a 95-2 vote. Like the Republican's, the Democrats had nothing but praise for Gates despite his past which shows a very different picture than the, "pragmatist" we are being sold. Mr. Gates, while not coming from the school of the neo-cons, is no less a stranger to human rights violations or other criminal behavior.

For younger people today, the Contra scandal is considered old news and no longer relevant. This perception has been perpetuation by an A historic media that does no real analysis of any given situation. If they had, than we would hear considerably more about Robert Gate's role in the scandal and thus, there might be much more scrutiny regarding this recent confirmation. 

For those recent victims of the American education system, The Contra scandal involved the  financing, arming and other direct dealings with the right wing narc group, the contras. They mostly worked out of  Nicaragua where they would transport cocaine into the United States. Several Reagan insiders either helped or worked directly with the drug smuggling operations, not the least of which was Oliver North, in return for the money which went towards the purchasing of the weapons that were sent to Iran. Much of the arms sales went through Con Air, the CIA's personal airline. one of the over seers was Robert Gates who escaped jail time even though other Reaganites weren't so lucky. As a result of the Central Intelligence Agencies dealings with the contras, the same group that were among the sworn enemies of the Sandinistas who had taken power by the late 1980s, the American embassy was attacked in Nicaragua by leftist troops. What is not reported in mainstream news is that, it was Gates who pushed for a retaliation. The backlash for the attack on the American base was an absolute bloodbath that spared few and included even the elderly, women and young children.

So this is the Robert Gates that we are now being sold, hardly a breath of fresh air and not exactly a huge difference from what one might expect from Rumsfeld.

What is being overshadowed in all this the Iraq study group report which lambasts Bush for his administrations shabby planning concerning the War in iraq.

For more on this story, you can checkout the link below. until next time.   

http://www.groundhog.tv/apps/editor/staticplayer.jsp?clip=1165526963488.wmv

http://www.groundhog.tv/apps/editor/staticplayer.jsp?clip=1165526689332.wmv