Well I'm embarrassed that I voted for Republicans so long I had been persuaded by Sen Barry Goldwater from reading his syndicated column in my local news paper to switch to the Republican party. In those days that party still had Republicans in the mold of Abe Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Gov Hiram Johnson of California, Sen Robet La Follete of Wisconsin, Gov Earl Warren of California, Governor Harold Stassen of Minnesota, Senator Jacob K. Javits of New York, Governor William Scranton of Pennsylvania and Governor George W. Romney of Michigan. The most notable of them all was Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York. They generally advocated a free-market, but with some level of regulation. Rockefeller required employable welfare recipients to take available jobs or job training. There people such as these good men in that party. The party had been taken over by the far right 20 years ago or more

Well I'm embarrassed that I voted for Republicans so long I had been persuaded by Sen Barry Goldwater from reading his syndicated column in my local news paper to switch to the Republican party. In those days that party still had Republicans in the mold of Abe Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Gov Hiram Johnson of California, Sen Robet La Follete of Wisconsin, Gov Earl Warren of California, Governor Harold Stassen of Minnesota, Senator Jacob K. Javits of New York, Governor William Scranton of Pennsylvania and Governor George W. Romney of Michigan. The most notable of them all was Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York. They generally advocated a free-market, but with some level of regulation. Rockefeller required employable welfare recipients to take available jobs or job training. There people such as these good men in that party. The party had been taken over by the far right 20 years ago or more

Reagan didn't assassinate any one until he became president. Reactionary conservatives had those people assassinated World War II was the "good war". After that conflict, most Americans believed that US intentions in the world were noble -- the US was the punisher of aggression and a warrior for freedom. This image was for generations of Americans the measure by which they judged their country in world affairs. The war in Vietnam ended the illusion that America was always on the "right side". Today, America's image as a defender of democracy and justice has been further eroded by the School of the Americas (SOA), which trains Latin American and Caribbean military officers and soldiers to subvert democracy and kill hope in their own countries.

Founded by the United States in 1946, the SOA was initially located in Panama, but in 1984 it was kicked out under the terms of the Panama Canal Treaty and moved to the army base at Fort Benning, Georgia. Then-President of Panama Jorge Illueca called it "the biggest base for de-stabilization in Latin America," and a major Panamanian newspaper dubbed it " The School of Assassins."

Today, SOA instructors and students are recruited from the cream of the Latin American military establishment. The School trains 700-2,000 soldiers a year, and since its inception in 1946, more than 60,000 military personnel have graduated from the SOA.The School of the Americas (SOA) has been given other names -- "School for Dictators", "School of Assassins", and "Nursery of Death Squads". And, countries with the worst human rights records send the most soldiers to the School.When they return to their home countries, graduates of the SOA hold a rather unique and peculiar view of their countrymen. They look upon priests, social workers, journalists, and liberal intellectuals, not as assets to their societies, but as dangerous subversives, working to undermine the system that keeps these soldiers, army officers, and their sponsors in power.

Graduates of the SOA have been among the most repressive tyrants in Latin America, and their actions have been some of the most cruel and violent. In El Salvador, in 1989, a Salvadoran army patrol executed six Jesuit priests as they lay face-down on the ground at Central America University. According to the United Nation's Truth Commission Report on El Salvador in 1993, 19 of the 27 officers who took part in the executions were trained at the SOA.

In 1990, in El Salvador, populist Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated. Three-quarters of the Salvadoran officers implicated in the killing were trained at the SOA. Roberto D'Aubuison, the late leader of El Salvador's Death Squad, was implicated in the plot to assassinate Archbishop Romero. He also participated in numerous murders, including a massacre in the village of El Mazote, where more than 900 men, women, and children were killed. He graduated from SOA as well.