Franken-Lies-And-the-Lying-Liars-Who-Tell

Motberfuckers!, due out in October 2004. I'm hoping it will "fire up the troops" for the final
weeks of the campaign season.
No, this book, the one you are reading now, is about giving both sides a fair shake and
getting to the bottom of the big issues that face us all as America transitions into the twentyfirst
century. Who was to blame for 9/11, other than the terrorists? It's an important question,
one that serious-minded people want answered. It's also one that less serious people like Sean
Hannity are curious about. And I think it's time to go to the record with an open mind and,
more important, an open heart.
Anyone with an open mind and an open heart must admit that, as with the budget
deficit, Reagan's anti-terror record was a disaster. Radical Islamic terrorists killed more
Americans during his ad ministration than during any before, and more than would die under
Bush Sr. and Clinton combined. Between the 1983 embassy and Marine barracks bombings
in Beirut and the destruction of Pan Am flight 103, nearly five hundred American lives were
lost. Reagan's only direct response was a single bombing run against Libya in 1986.
To be fair, two days after the Marine barracks bombing, Reagan did invade Grenada.
Although he cut and ran in Lebanon, which might have been interpreted as capitulation, 1
think his bold attack on Grenada sent a clear message to violent Muslim extremists: If you
attack us, we'll invade a Club Med.
The Great Communicator scored another direct hit in the fight against terror by supplying
arms to violent Muslim extremists among the Afghani Mujahedeen, as well as to his
friends in Iran and Iraq. Crazy, you say? Crazy like a fox, say I!
Now, the Gipper wasn't the kind of president who saw terrorism just in terms of black
and white. No, Reagan distinguished between good terrorists and bad terrorists. He loved his
terrorist death squads in Guatemala, El Salvador, and most of all, Nicaragua. Enough to violate
the Constitution to support the Contras as they raped and tortured nuns. Bad terrorists,
on the other hand, were those who used terror irresponsibly. See, Reagan saw the shades of
gray, where a less nuanced politician may have only seen unmitigated evil.
On to Bush Sr. No huge terrorist attacks, thank goodness. And there was no way he
could have known that Ramzi Yousef and a vast network of violent Muslim extremists were
planning the World Trade Center bombing that would take place February 26, 1993. You
may remember that no one blamed Bush Sr. for this bombing of the World Trade Center by