Ari Fleischer occasionally likes to pose as a man who values comity and respect in partisan politics. But that, naturally, is a self-authored fiction. So, ungracious as we'd expect, Fleischer offered this nugget of anti-wisdom upon the second inauguration of Barack Obama:
What were the Iranians scared about following President Reagan's second inaugural?
That they wouldn't have enough room in their arsenal for all the military-grade weapons Reagan's administration was going to sell them in exchange for hostages (a.k.a. "negotiating with terrorists")?
That the film rights to the scheme -- which involved Swiss bank accounts, paramilitary Latin American forces, a President shown lying by his own Defense Secretary's handwritten notes, the Sultan of Brunei, and a price-gouging third party arms contractor -- might be licensed by Disney, and the Iranian government might miss out on some sweet royalties?
From Wikipedia:
The following arms were supplied to Iran:
August 20, 1985. 96 TOW anti-tank missiles
September 14, 1985. 408 more TOWs
November 24, 1985. 18 Hawk anti-aircraft missiles
February 17, 1986. 500 TOWs
February 27, 1986. 500 TOWs
May 24, 1986. 508 TOWs, 240 Hawk spare parts
August 4, 1986. More Hawk spares
October 28, 1986. 500 TOWs
It's a small thing. But it's worth noting that even in the midst of their sourpuss Twitter outbursts, they can't even come up with an insult that won't backfire on them. Ari delves into the genre of Reagan fan fiction to pretend Iran was afraid of the United States in 1986. No, they were so unafraid of Reagan's United States that they were able to successfully demand thousands of anti-tank missiles in exchange for releasing several hostages.