Observations on the Iran-Contra Congressional Hearings

I could forgive Poindexter’s unabashed public dissembling and his wanton subversion of the democratic process if I knew for certain that he was following direct orders from the President.

However, if he acted, as he says he did, with a quasi-tacit approval based on some misbegotten notion of “this is what the President wants,” then we must wonder about his contemporaries who watch over our nuclear forces and we must pray that these men do not act some day on what they perceive to be the wants and wishes of our President.

What Poindexter and his subordinates have revealed over the course of their testimony is that, like the man who has ostensibly plausible deniability, they are men of modest intellect and courage and even more modest integrity.

It seems that in the end, we had American patriots working hand-in-glove with Iranian zealots, each believing so passionately in their cause that one was willing to strike a deal with the devil and the other with vicious fanatics.

In sum, I do not find fault so much with the men who have come before us these past few weeks as I do with the society that has spawned such men. It is fortunate for us that God has granted us a political process that forces such deeds and such men into the light so that we all may clearly see their deeds and the damage that has been done. And what we do to repair that damage will be a measure of us as a people and our democratic process.

PAUL A. CAVALLO

Ramona