Welcome...and initial guidelines...

This blog will be used in the spring of 2008 by 80+ students at Drexel University to investigate the effects of Iraq on culture and the reverse. Our goal will be to better understand why the US is in Iraq, and to question whether literature can help us on this journey.

Weekly plans and other materials will always be posted in Vista, not this blog. So go to Bb Vista to get the discussion prompts and other instructions.

I intend this blog to manage our discussions and track our collective investigation.

You should have received an email from me inviting you to become a contributor to this blog. The email was sent Monday afternoon to your official Drexel email address.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

IRAN CONTRA

It all started with the eventually called “October Surprise” in 1980. It was the presidential elections between the Republican contender Ronald Reagan and the actual president Jimmy Carter. Carter, at the time was leading the polls but his strongest point of the campaign was the release of 52 Americans hostages that were held in Iran. His promise was that he would release the hostages BEFORE the elections. According to some testimonials by CIA agents at the time Reagan’s best loyal man (and consequently his vice after the election), George Bush Senior, went to Paris only weeks before the elections where he had a meeting with the Iran Prime Minister Bani-sadr. He gave Iran 40$ Million as a proof of Reagan’s loyalty to cooperate with them after he would win the elections. What Iran had to do was to hold the hostages and release them only after the elections. Certainly these are only words and such thing was never proved to be true, but a “strange” fact happened. The hostages weren’t released before the elections, and eventually that fact led to Carter losing the elections. And what’s more ironical, the hostages were released just days after Ronal Reagan was inaugurated as President of the United States. And after that, indeed, USA started cooperating with Iran, and sold them guns that they needed to fight Iraq. They were six armaments negotiations between USA and Iraq. The money that USA gained from those deals was turned to the rebels fighting the Rebels fighting against the communist government in Nicaragua.
I am repeating this again: These are only words (or rumors), but when you think about there are a many things here that figure out perfectly, and this is certainly a point that leaves people (at least me) very uncertain. At least one thing is sure: Since that year, in each Presidential Election, everybody expects an “October Surprise” to happen!

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