Ronald Reagan is an icon to many Americans who view him as one of the great Presidents. But a new revelation in the Washington Post is a reminder of the depravity behind Reagan’s policies in Central America, including massacres of entire villages like the Salvadoran town of El Mozote in 1981.

According to the Post, some skulls of little children butchered by the Salvadoran army later were scooped up for use as candle holders and good luck charms.

For his part, Reagan unleashed his administration to discredit news accounts of the massacre at El Mozote and in hundreds of other towns across Central America.

For the full story on Reagan’s responsibility for these atrocities, go to the independent ConsortiumNews.Com.

Senate Democrats were persuaded to give Robert M. Gates a free pass to become Defense Secretary in December, 2006, despite warnings from CIA officers who had worked with him. The Democrats bought into the “conventional wisdom” that Gates would guide George W. Bush toward a phased withdrawal from Iraq.

Instead, Gates is emerging as a loyal foot soldier for Bush in expanding the war - and to demonstrate his thanks to the Democrats for the free pass, Gates now is accusing them of aiding America’s enemies by not falling in line behind Bush.

For the full story of how the Democrats were bamboozled again, go to the independent ConsortiumNews.Com.

To the editor:
 
After Regions Bank bought AmSouth, large numbers of workers were laid off, damaging workers and the economy of the Greater Birmingham region. Now they have damaged our economy even more.
 
Regions is essentially evicting Sonat from its downtown building, in which Sonat occupied 7 1/2 floors. Sonat is following the path of least resistance in moving out of the city to the suburbs, leaving Birmingham hurting for the tax dollars Sonat has paid here.
 
We have to remember that Sonat was sold a few years ago to El Paso Energy, and that sale reduced the Sonat workforce by over half, again hurting Birmingham workers and our tax base.
 
The plethora of mergers in recent year of financial and energy corporations has resulted in huge monopolies, out-of-work citizens and constant assaults on the tax bases of our cities.
 
Adam Smith, in “The Wealth of Nations” (the :Bible” of capitalism), pointed out that without government regulation of corporations, they will become monopolies and destroy the very competition that is the life-blood of capitalism 
 
With the Bush administration’s refusal to block any monopolies that are being created by these mergers, Bush and the giant monopolies are destroying the very capitalism they praise the most.
 
Where is Teddy Roosevelt when we need him?  Remember, he was a real Republican, a trust-buster. It makes you wonder what the guys in power today are.
 
Jack Zylman
Southside, Birmingham

Sonat Leaving Downtown Birmingham Base: Gas Company Moving to Homewood

The family of a soldier from Locust Fork Alabama among four abducted and killed during a sneak attack in Iraq confirmed by the Pentagon Friday was not told by the military at first about the abduction.

Army Pfc. Johnathan Millican, 20, a 2005 graduate of Locust Fork High School, was among the four listed as being abducted and killed in the Jan. 20 strike in Karbala, according to the AP.

While Millican’s family and friends initially understood from the military that the troops died in an ambush, the Pentagon said Friday the four actually were abducted in a sophisticated attack and then killed.

Watch for more news and an investigation on this.