General Secord and the United States Senate Hearings into "Iran-Contra"


Clearly, after several days in the limelight of the Senate Select Committee, General Secord seemed to remain uncertain as to why he was there. Throughout the hearings he maintained the propriety of his arms-dealing, Contra-funding behavior despite the fact that it was illegal. He seemed bemused and indifferent to the principles upon which this country was founded and by which it is supposed to run; that it is a country by and for the people and we the people are protected by laws and represented by elected officials in Washington. He continues to insist that he was right in selling arms to a de jure enemy and turning the profits of those sales around to support a de facto terrorist organization proscribed by the Congress of the United States.

It’s fun to fantasize about being the world’s constable… all the wonderful things we would do to ameliorate the penury, pain and violence. We have such thoughts in our personal lives as well. There are many people, businesses and organizations which frustrate our ambitions and personal beliefs; but vigilantism went out with Wyatt Earp and Tom Horn -- or so I would hope. We have laws to protect ourselves and our interests from the self-righteous enthusiasm of zealous individuals whether they are private citizens, Congress-persons or Presidents. And yes, this democracy of ours can be a frustrating system. There are many of us who would like to build a school here, a hospital there, set aside some land as free space, build a shopping mall or housing development and so forth for the "best" of the community but happily, this is a democracy and we all have to agree on these things and then live with the majority opinion.

A majority of the people in the United States voted to forbid further aid to the Contras in 1984. Like it or not, that was the law (known of course, as the Boland Amendment). We may not like fifty-five miles an hour, we may not like no-smoking, we may not like helmets, we may not like gun-registration; we probably do not like a lot of laws, but that is the way it is. Furthermore, it is not only the letter of the law which must be respected, but the intent. The intent of a school-zone speed limit is to protect little children. Is there any excuse for a man to try to find a loophole by which he can circumvent that law and speed down that street at sixty miles an hour? If we cease to respect the word and the intent of our laws we will cease to be America (or at least, America the Beautiful).