Congress passed the "Boland Amendment" stipulating NO APPROPRIATED FUNDS COULD BE EXPENDED TO AID THE CONTRAs. Obviously, the Democrats preferred Danny Ortega and the Communist Sandanistas over any elected government ... especially one that would favor freedoms for people. Granted, some of the Contras weren't nice people, but then again many of the people willing to fight against the Communists are not likely to be candidates for the Vienna Choir.
Oliver North was looking for a way to LEGALLY aid the Contras. Unlike Clinton, who didn't know the meaning of "is" ... North recognized that he could not route U.S. money to the Contras ... per the probably unconstitutional Boland Amendment. So he looked for "legal loopholes". Israel sold arms to the Iranians for a stiff markup, and part of the money went to buy replacement hardware, and the profits went to aid the Contras. Not what Congress wanted, but all within the letter of the law.
The Independent Counsel spent about $110 Million trying to find guilty parties ... and came up with a dry hole. The IC was found to have done many wrong things, and the few convictions that he got were overturned on appeal. (Contrast this to IC Ken Starr's record of more than a dozen convictions and many plea bargins ... and a sitting Governor, plus other high level officials were among those caught. The only thing that kept Clinton (actually, both Hillary AND Bill) for being indicted for various crimes was the understanding that in Washington, D.C, the "jury nullification" by an "OJ TYPE" jury would likely happen.
You asked what we got ... for one, we kept the balance of terror between Iran and Iraq fairly balanced. Better that they fight each other than to fight us.
And Ollie managed to get some assistance and vital funding to assist the Contras ... and that forced Danny Ortega to gamble that he would win elections, and he got trounced. Nicaragua threw out the communists, much to the disgust of Democrats in the U.S. and other communist sympathizers everywhere! This success helped undermine the Soviet Union, which had the "Brezhnev doctrine" of "Once a Communist State, Always a Communist State." Under the Reagan watch, Grenada fell out of the Communist Axis of Evil, then Nicaragua. And of course, Reagan aided the Afghan freedom fighters who sought to force the Soviets out of their country ... and the Soviets left near the end of the 80's. .. another loss Soviets, another "nail in the coffin" for the Soviets (remember Reagan's early claim about how the Soviets would end up in the dustbin of history?? He was right!!).
Hostage taking hasn't been a big issue since the 80's - and if we are looking for a loss of moral standing in the world, we only need look at the many crimes of the Clinton administration ... which gave military and high tech secrets to China for campaign contributions, ignored many terrorist actions which lead to 9/11. Clinton "ran" from Haiti when a Navy ship approached a dock that had protestors on the pier. Clinton cut and ran when the Somali's killed the 18 Army men. Clinton promised action when terrorists tried to topple the World Trade Center in 1993, and after many other terrorist actions. He did respond with expensive cruise missiles - either at a real medical plant (not the "nerve gas facility" he claimed it was), or the $10 mud huts in Afghanistan. Those strikes typically occurred when some Monica testimony or release of information "harmful" to his Presidency might occur. (a true "wag-the-dog" scenario). The blowing up of the Sudan "aspirin factory" was truly harmful to the nation's reputation. Clinton was hitting the wrong target, killing innocent civilians, all to distract from Monica testimony. And you think what Reagan did was harmful? Tell your friend to get his head out of his rectal cavity, and he might smell roses rather than his own mental excrement!!! And the view is better ... and maybe he might learn something .. but I doubt it. Anyone who could put the 6 points he put together is obviously one who is a true communist .. tell a lie often enough and maybe someone will believe it ... maybe even the one who is telling it.
Mike