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The fate of any of these reforms will ultimately depend on officials whose sense of patriotism is informed by a sincere belief in the rule of law and the workings of democracy. The relentless Iran-contra testimony has been a painful as well as prolonged process, but it has also offered up a sound civics lesson to a nation celebrating the 200th anniversary of its Constitution: that + America is a nation of laws, of checks and balances, and of policies that must be accountable to elected officials and ultimately the people.
Balancing a democracy's demands for public accountability with its need to conduct covert activities in a dangerous world has always been maddeningly difficult. But if the Iran-contra affair proves anything, it may be that policies able to stand up under democratic scrutiny tend to be better, even wiser, than those designed to avoid it. Operating the shadowy network that handled arms deals with Iran and funneled funds to the contras required a prolonged series of lies to Congress and the American people, the deception of U.S. allies, and keeping top Cabinet officials and perhaps even the President in the dark. Any policy that depends on such a suffocating cloak of deceit and deniability is likely to have something fundamentally wrong with it.