Commentary: ...never like these guys

In the picture Reagan meets with (left to right) Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, Secretary of State George Shultz, Attorney General Ed Meese, and Chief of Staff Don Regan in the Oval Office

Just for the record, I never want to be like any of the men in the above picture. While I would not care to enter into a debate about how much they cared for their country nor would I question Reagan's economic successes during his time in office, I do believe his presided over a period of questionable US foreign policy(though not new). This period saw the struggling militias in various parts of the world, particularly Latin America, as a means to furthering US foreign interest. While I hope this era of US foreign policy is over(yea I know, high hopes) it is very sad to see countries exploiting the other people.

I actually only recently learned about the Iran/Contra scandal during the Reagan administration. And, unfortunately the more I learn about the history of the world I live in, the more I become skeptical about the people you can trust. Furthermore, the more I buy into the realists view of foreign policy and Thomas Hobbes's belief of the fundamental "egoism" of humans.

The long and short of the affair was that the Senators under Reagan were selling weapons to Iran--who was under an arms embargo at the time--in exchange for US prisoners. Afterwards, they then funded anti-communists in Nicaragua with the funds from illegal weapons sales. You can look up more details about the scandal here.

This sad reminder of the constant warnings that if I go into politics, I am going to have to "dirty" my hands. To be honest, although I know that politics is a dirty game, I hope that I will be fortunate or good enough at what I do that I will be able to maintain my integrity during my time in public office. If not, despite whatever progress I make, I think I would look back at my tenure with disappointment. If nothing else, I want to prove you can be successful in politics without violence, corruption and scandal. I want to be like Norman Manley. I read this book, entitled Norman Manley Lecture Series(which I'll blog about soon), on how he was such a good and upright man and politician that the word scandal or misdeed was ever associated with his time in office. That is what I aspire to be like. Lets hope that one works out.