Libya and the Iran-Contra Affair: Recent Events

Libya and the Iran-Contra Affair:

Recent events of American intervention in Libyan affairs have sparked a debate upon whether or not support should include arms. Support for this measure can be found on both sides of the isle in Washington. The white house seems to be ignoring the issue for the present; however, it has come to light the CIA is on the ground, and some arms are coming from Egypt. History has shown this sort of intervention as counterintuitive to American, as well as humanitarian, interests. Current policy of meddling from afar draws undeniable parallels to the Iran-Contra affair, and the activities of American intervention in the Afghanistan / Soviet conflict. Looking into the failures of policy concerning the past will show how present ambitions of arming the rebels of today as misguided; moreover, dangerous.

During the 1980's America, as seen in the Iran-Contra scandal, became interested in actively providing arms to areas vulnerable to the advancement of the Soviet Union. Basically, America used the Iran hostage crisis to reach out to Iran and provide arms before the Soviets seized the opportunity. Selling arms to Iran for the political reason of saving hostages, and the strategic aim of stemming soviet advancement, created funding for Nicaragua. The Iran-Contra affair offered a three- pronged commitment. First, save the hostages of the Iran hostage crisis. Two, flood the Middle East with weapons to combat Russia. Lastly, provide aid to the Contras at war with the Sandinista, and coincidently, communist Nicaraguan government.

Oliver North concedes the fear of communism; "The Russian Bear was now closer than ever, which was why the Iranians were quietly transferring some of the arms we had sold them to the Afghan rebels" (Hershberg, 2003, p.30). This non-committal intervention developed into a birthplace for an organization called Al-Qaida. In other words, providing arms with no political responsibility provided fertile soil for extremism. "The true roots of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network stem from the decade-long conflict that plagued Afghanistan from 1979-1989…The Afghan Islamist extremists found a rallying call for their cause" (Moyers, 2011, p.1).

The funds from selling arms to Iran, essentially Afghanistan, permitted extreme humanitarian atrocities in Nicaragua. The Contras may not have been Marxists, however they were definitely extremists. "The preponderance of the evidence indicates that the contras are committing serious abuses against civilians. They include torture, rape, kidnapping, mutilation, and murder" (Brody, 1985, p.6). Distant manipulation of events by the United States, in these two cases, had extreme unintended consequences.

These unintended and unforeseen consequences deny legitimacy to the argument of supplying arms to Libya today. Same ideas of non-committal intervention are permeating our current political arena. The Wall Street Journal reported on the seventeenth of March 2011, "Egypt's military ahs begun shipping arms over the border to Libyan rebels with Washington's knowledge, U.S. And Libyan rebel officials said" (Levinson, Rosenberg, 2011 p.1)