The X-Files – Issue 10

I keep swinging back and forth in this arc. Sometimes I want to just stop reading it, but then it proves just interesting enough to keep me reading.

This was one of those issues. It is somewhat choppy; artwork is OK, but not great; and the storyline is fuzzy at best. But it draws on the Iran-Contra scandal, which I feel has gotten buried and lost in an age of memes, flashy click-bait, and sensationalism. And for that alone, I am glad I read this.

There is a great passage where Mulder recounts the key points of Iran-Contra, which I feel is worth sharing.

“Iran-Contra was an appalling, almost impossible to believe travesty of constitutional subversion. It had everything. Arms sold to the Iranians, our ‘80s-sized enemy, to pay ransom for American hostages being held in Lebanon. Money, in turn, funneled to arm rebellion against elected leftist governments and to fund illegal Central American wars. A direct assault on both sovereignty and democracy. We’re talking about assassinations and indiscriminate destruction of land and history. Death squads became common. Men securely positioned within the highest levels of our government were later exposed as running a for-profit shadow operation trafficking in narcotics, influence, and violence.”

It seems like ancient history, but it was really not that long ago. So even though our social and political landscape is shifting at an ever quickening rate, I think it is important that we don’t lose sight or our history.