Uh - didn't Reagan actually provide financial and diplomatic support to Saddam Hussein of Iraq, who was a big threat to Israel?
And didn't the Reagan administration also provide financial aid and Stinger Surface to Air missiles to "jihadist" Muslim guerrillas in Afghanistan?
Some of whom later became the nucleus of al Qaeda, the group that carried out the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center?
I'm a leftist who happens to think Ron Paul is right about US foreign policy, although not about anything else, really. I think his domestic policies -- eg totally eliminating the Federal Reserve -- would wreck the US economy in the long run.
But I think Paul is right to say that the US now maintains a huge military empire that we can't afford, and that if we keep trying to maintain that empire -- including its operations in the Middle East -- this will bankrupt the country eventually.
Although I support the right of Israel to exist, I also think the current Israeli government deserves to be sanctioned -- hard -- for its stubborn refusal to negotiate in good faith with the Palestianians.
For the US to support Israel as it continues to place illegal Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands makes a mockery of our claims to defend "peace" and "democracy."
BUT - whether you love my opinions of hate them, and you probably hate them -- it's just WRONG to see Reagan as a president who never supported violent Islamist jihadists.
He not only supported them in Afghanistan; he called them "religious freedom fighters." I don't think Ron Paul ever did anything quite as dumb as that.
Please see the movie (or read the book) "Charlie Wilson's War," for details.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipszh14WPFY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3f9mlUQzJA