That sounds exactly like someone who hates Obama & adored Reagan...
Ronald Reagan: A Simple Man Who So Nearly Destroyed Us
- Thread starter cancel2 2022
- Start date
That sounds exactly like someone who hates Obama & adored Reagan...
Bfgrn
New member
After all the rose coloured spectacles commentary on Ronald Reagan in recent days, a more sober analysis from Andrew Alexander on how he nearly caused WWIII.
By Andrew Alexander
Last updated at 8:02 AM on 9th February 2011
It was recently the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ronald Reagan, the man who brought the world so near to a nuclear holocaust
History is a moving target. Hit it at the right moment and you will get a good picture of the past, otherwise it is a succession of inners and outers and plain misses.
The 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birth has seen a mixture
of marksmanship, ranging from accurate to deranged, the latter as befits a dangerously deluded man who brought the world so near to a nuclear holocaust.
Yes, of course he was charming and engagingly modest. Yes, he understood a great simplicity of economics: that lower taxes could increase *government revenues.
Simplicities were, indeed, his *speciality. The Cold War was, to him, an extension of Hollywood B-movies where there were good guys and bad guys, with the white hats eventually defeating the black hats in the final shoot-out.
Those journalists who followed his campaign trails wondered if they heard him correctly. Did he really say Russia had ‘hardened’ all its *factories against nuclear blast? Did he actually say that the *Kremlin was preparing an attack and that war was likely?
Yes, he did. The man he appointed Under Secretary of Defence claimed the U.S. could recover from nuclear war in *two to four years. And, Reagan absurdly claimed, there was no word in the Russian language for freedom (there is, it’s svoboda).
No wonder the Kremlin was alarmed. Matters were made worse by U.S. Air Force planes and warships being ordered to test Soviet defences by advancing up to and sometimes into its airspace and territorial *waters. It led to the shooting down of a *Korean airliner by an over-zealous fighter pilot.
Double agent Oleg Gordievsky, the head of KGB in London at the time, warned how the US war games were being interpreted in Moscow
But this was by no means the key incident. The planned ‘Able Archer’ exercise by the Pentagon had the Soviets fearing these war games would suddenly convert into an all-out attack. Fortunately, the head of the KGB in London, Oleg Gordievsky, was a double agent and warned how this was being interpreted in Moscow. Able Archer was changed. We were lucky, too, that a Soviet colonel disregarded standing orders and declined to fire his missiles when the radar registered a launch from the U.S. It was *actually a trick of the sunlight.
Then there was the Star Wars project for a missile shield in outer space. It has been seen by admirers of Reagan as a brilliant manoeuvre — the system so expensive that the Soviet Union could never meet the cost of a response and would have to sue for peace.
In fact, CIA analysts saw the project — if it came into being — as capable of being matched by Soviet counter-*measures without undue cost.
But the plan looked to the Kremlin like another disguise for that final attack on what Reagan dubbed ‘the evil empire’ in his warlike rhetoric.
If we have to single out a U.S. *President who brought about the end of the Cold War, it would be Jimmy Carter.
In 1979, he inveigled the Soviet Union into its war in Afghanistan, thus creating the *Taliban. It proved an unwinnable ten-year war — how history repeats itself!
The intense unpopularity and *outright failures in that conflict were a *serious factor in bringing to *power Mikhail Gorbachev, long sceptical of the sustainability of the Communist system.
To Reagan’s admirers, the end of the Cold War blotted out everything else. And there was a lot else. He came as near to formal indictment as President Nixon. The ‘Iran-*Contra’ scandal involved defying a specific Congress ruling by sending aid to Nicaraguan exiles seeking to overthrow the Left-wing government.
He was warned that these very roundabout deals were, in fact, *illegal. At least his deals to support Saddam Hussein in his war with Iran were legal, if heavily disguised.
Among the historical messages of the Reagan presidency must be a warning to beware of charm. This, we might recall, was Tony Blair’s strong point — and he ended up embroiling us in two Middle East wars. Historians can muse on the role of charm in the wrong hands.
They may also like to muse on the fact that Reagan was so much in the hands of his wife Nancy. She had her own views on the President’s appointments and on dates which were ‘unlucky’. And she, it turned out, was being advised by an *astrologer in San Francisco.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/a...le-man-nearly-destroyed-us.html#ixzz1DVbMvKPc
Great article tom...Reagan is the antithesis of the President who had charisma AND intelligence...John F. Kennedy
I think you will find this article fascinating. Kennedy had a totally different approach to the threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union. And the closest we ever came to that happening was in October of 1962.
Warrior For Peace - The Lessons of J.F.K. - TIME
Bfgrn
New member
Cancel 2018. 3
<-- sched 2, MJ sched 1
oh, so he didn't call his political opponents enemies, thanks.
Cancel 2018. 3
<-- sched 2, MJ sched 1
christiefan915
Catalyst
christiefan915
Catalyst
Obama had such a loyal following that people like you referred to him as the Messiah.
Also, voter turnout for the 2008 election was the highest in at least 40 years and Obama received the most votes for a presidential candidate in American history. He didn't win with lefty base votes only.
cawacko
Well-known member
Where are you getting that voter turnout for the '08 election was the highest in at least 40 years? I haven't looked anything up yet but hasn't our population grown astronomically over the past 40 years? I may be off but I can't imagine we had more people voting in 1968 or anytime prior than we did in 2008.
Bfgrn
New member
It's pretty amazing how Republican Senators can say things like: ""If we're able to stop Obama on [health care reform], it will be his Waterloo. It will break him" accuse him of pulling the plug on grandma. A Congressman blurts out 'you lie' during a State of the Union Address and conservative pundits call him a racist and that they hope he fails...people who have made it clear Obama is their enemy and have shown no respect for the man are all of sudden 'hurt' and taken back. Even when they take his words out of context to beat him over the head.
Obama: I shouldn't have used the word 'enemies'
President Obama is backing off a previous comment in which he appeared to cast Republicans as "enemies."
"I probably should have used the word 'opponents' instead of 'enemies,'" Obama told radio host Michael Baisden.
Last week, in an interview with Univision radio, Obama urged Hispanic votes for Democrats, and said: "If Latinos sit out the election instead of, 'we're going to punish our enemies and we're going to reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us' -- if they don't see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election, then I think it's going to be harder."
Republicans jumped on the president's remark.
"Today, sadly, we have president who uses the word 'enemy' for fellow Americans," said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, who stands to become Speaker of the House if Republicans win control of the chamber.
"Mr. President, there's a word for people who have the audacity to speak up in defense of freedom, the Constitution, and the values of limited government that made our country great," Boehner said. "We don't call them 'enemies.' We call them 'patriots.'"
Obama said Monday he was referring to GOP opposition to comprehensive immigration reform.
"Now the Republicans are saying that I'm calling them enemies," Obama said. "What I'm saying is you're an opponent of this particular provision, comprehensive immigration reform, which is something very different."
Beefy
Worst gambler ever
Translation:
Reagan is an asshole for saying what he said, Obama is a Saint for saying the same things.
cancel2 2022
Canceled
The author Andrew Alexander is anything but left wing, he is an outstanding journalist who has been around a very long time unlike the right wing revisionists that were still in nappies when Reagan was in power. You are certainly the first person to call the Daily Mail left wing, that is just priceless.
cancel2 2022
Canceled
I refer you to the far left website cia.gov and their musings on that period of history.
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-...nd-monographs/a-cold-war-conundrum/source.htm
Never, perhaps, in the postwar decades was the situation in the world as explosive and hence, more difficult and unfavourable, as in the first half of the 1980s. --Mikhail Gorbachev, February 1986
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Bfgrn
New member
No, Obama shouldn't have used the word 'enemy' in any context, he should have chosen his words more carefully. Especially when you consider Republicans and right wing pundits will take any misstep the man makes and turn it into a weapon to destroy him.
I have called Republicans traitors and terrorists for the way they have totally disregarded the people of this nation since Obama was elected. They trashed the tradition of a loyal opposition. Their only loyalty is to party and gaining back power.
Reagan had a history of revealing his racism and disdain for the poor. Reagan was president for the elite and opulent, not the common man. But he was a good actor.
christiefan915
Catalyst
At bottom there's a link to one source. The chart's not showing up very well on this page.
Year Voting-age population Voter registration Voter turnout Turnout of voting-age
population (percent)
2008*231,229,580 NA 132,618,580* 56.8%
2006 220,600,000 135,889,600 80,588,000 37.1%
2004 221,256,931 174,800,000 122,294,978 55.3
2002 215,473,000 150,990,598 79,830,119 37.0
2000 205,815,000 156,421,311 105,586,274 51.3
1998 200,929,000 141,850,558 73,117,022 36.4
1996 196,511,000 146,211,960 96,456,345 49.1
1994 193,650,000 130,292,822 75,105,860 38.8
1992 189,529,000 133,821,178 104,405,155 55.1
1990 185,812,000 121,105,630 67,859,189 36.5
1988 182,778,000 126,379,628 91,594,693 50.1
1986 178,566,000 118,399,984 64,991,128 36.4
1984 174,466,000 124,150,614 92,652,680 53.1
1982 169,938,000 110,671,225 67,615,576 39.8
1980 164,597,000 113,043,734 86,515,221 52.6
1978 158,373,000 103,291,265 58,917,938 37.2
1976 152,309,190 105,037,986 81,555,789 53.6
1974 146,336,000 96,199,0201 55,943,834 38.2
1972 140,776,000 97,328,541 77,718,554 55.2
1970 124,498,000 82,496,7472 58,014,338 46.6
1968 120,328,186 81,658,180 73,211,875 60.8
1966 116,132,000 76,288,2833 56,188,046 48.4
1964 114,090,000 73,715,818 70,644,592 61.9
1962 112,423,000 65,393,7514 53,141,227 47.3
1960 109,159,000 64,833,0965 68,838,204 63.1
Read more: National Voter Turnout in Federal Elections: 1960–2008 — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781453.html#ixzz1DYrD5n30
Cancel 2016.2
The Almighty
I never said Reagan didn't use teleprompters, but take the teleprompters away and Reagan and Clinton could still deliver... Obama cannot.
Cancel 2016.2
The Almighty
a very good rebuttal. It shows just how deranged some on the left are when they describe Reagan.
Oh, bull. One of the biggest myths going about Obama is that he's helpless w/out his prompter. The guy has already spoken off the cuff more in 2 years than Bush did in 8, and he's pretty articulate when doing so.
Reagan used to read off of index cards in WH meetings. There was one time when he was meeting with some executives from Japan, and he grabbed the wrong cards - he didn't realize until about 10 minutes into the meeting.
He wasn't exactly a master w/out a script....
Cancel 2016.2
The Almighty
It is hardly a myth and no, he is not helpless. But he is also not the natural orator that Clinton and Reagan were.
Also... comparing Obama to Bush is like standing next to a rock and shouting to the world 'I am smarter than this here rock'.
cawacko
Well-known member
Ahh, percentage. I got it. My bad.