To the editor:

There were two significant absences last week among the thousands of dignitaries and commoners who strode in something resembling religious worship around the coffin of Ronald Reagan. Those two missing individuals have more to thank Reagan for than the majority of those who milled about his flag-draped corpse last week.

The first is Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden was one of the leaders of the mujahedin, the rebel group who fought to repel Soviet forces in Afghanistan during Reagan’s tenure as president. Under President Reagan, the CIA launched a $500 million per year campaign to arm and train the mujahedin. With the CIA’s blessing, bin Laden recruited Arabs from all over the world to fight in Afghanistan. Experts trained thousands in the arts of guerrilla warfare, sabotage and covert operations. Bin Laden and the mujahedin were called “Freedom Fighters” by Reagan and his administrators.

The other missing admirer at Reagan’s wake was Saddam Hussein. During the eight years of the Reagan presidency, U.S. agents aided Iraq in its war against Iran. Secretly, openly, legally and illegally, people in the Reagan administration supplied U.S. funds (your tax money), technology and training to Iraqis. Reagan’s administrators turned blind eyes as U.S. corporations helped Iraq develop its chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons programs. In 1983, Special Envoy Donald Rumsfeld (your defense secretary) carried a handwritten offer from Reagan (the “Great Communicator”) to Hussein for a resumption of diplomatic relations between the United States and Iraq.

Now why exactly are we fighting a war on terror?

Charles Goff III,

Lawrence