Re: A history lesson
You guys beat me to it, as I was about to post this link here myself.
I grew up as a Young Republican during the 1980's, and I remember extremely well how one of the litmus tests for "true believers" during that time was whether they supported the mujihadeen -- those "brave religious freedom fighters" -- in their battle against the Evil Communists in Afghanistan. And oh, how we praised Saint Reagan for standing up to the Evil Liberals so that the brave mujihadeen could have their guns, and their bombs, and their stinger missiles.
Now, flash forward to September 11, 2001, and suddenly every right-wing nut who supported these extremists develops instant amnesia. "Mujihadeen? Never heard of them! But did you hear about those Muslim Extremists in Afghanistan that just popped into existence out of nowhere?! Well, that's all I need to know! Let's go invade Iraq!"
To call these people ignorant of history would be far too kind. They know the history intimately -- how could they not? -- but they are utterly unwilling to take any responsibility for their own part in it. It just goes down the Memory Hole, everyone pretends it never happened, and the whole right wing propaganda machine moves on to a new list of talking points.
Anyway, it's good to remind them that not all of us have forgotten how we really got to this point.
q/q
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