Oh Novak You

Robert Novak writes today that the U.S. is "Losing Nicaragua, Again" on the WaPo editorial page. I didn't know it was ours to lose. Apparently the Sandanistas may regain power after 16 years after their fall. They weren't choirboys for sure, but they were better for the majority of Nicaraguans than the detestable dictatorship of Somoza. As always with Novak you get backward prose without a hint of moral uncertainty regarding the U.S. funded Contras, which with U.S. funding practiced a true terrorist war against the agrarian population of Nicaragua supportive of the Sandanistas.

The seemingly unavoidable outcome of next Sunday's election is a Nicaraguan tragedy, losing at the ballot box what was won two decades ago by the blood of contra fighters and the risking of Ronald Reagan's presidency.

This is truly a man of democracy and classical liberal philosophy. Robert, this is what elections do, transfer power from one government to the next at the behest of the people. It certainly is a tragedy when the people of one nation elect new governments that don't increase or preserve the strategic power of the United States in the Western Hemisphere. Novak must believe Monroe made it clear -- all the Americas are ours.

Oh, and he continues to lionize Oliver North. It's nice to see how terrorism is used by conservatives dualistically to divide their conception of good from evil when it's a tactic used by everyone, especially the U.S., whether directly or indirectly, since the end of WWII.