June 12

[PoliticalChic]

On this day, in 1987

In front of the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, President Ronald Reagan declared, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” It took two years before the wall came down.


With vision and strength of will, this President defeated the 'Evil Empire' without firing a shot.


Put Ron on the Rock.

 

[del]

 

[Truthseeker420]

On this day, in 1987

In front of the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, President Ronald Reagan declared, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” It took two years before the wall came down.


With vision and strength of will, this President defeated the 'Evil Empire' without firing a shot.


Put Ron on the Rock.

 

[del]

he's dead and they closed alcatraz a long time ago.

 

[BDBoop]

And in other news June 12, 1967.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM5A8kiNA6o]"Loving" and the Fight for Marriage Equality - YouTube[/ame]

 

[MaryL]

I think Ronald Regan was responsible for terror attacks on 9-11. He helped the Taliban and the fledgling Al queda (bin Laden) with all sorts of support to fight the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, their loss was heralded as Russia's "Vietnam". I believe we would have been better served IF the Russians had WON.... Ronald Regan worked to destroy unions. Ronald Regan's administration fought for Amnesty for our much maligned illegal aliens back in 88'...Food for thought. BYTW, we are doing pretty much what the Russians were doing in Afghanistan... an occupying force buttressing our concerns...Regan wasn't much of anything.

 

[PoliticalChic]

I think Ronald Regan was responsible for terror attacks on 9-11. He helped the Taliban and the fledgling Al queda (bin Laden) with all sorts of support to fight the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, their loss was heralded as Russia's "Vietnam". I believe we would have been better served IF the Russians had WON.... Ronald Regan worked to destroy unions. Ronald Regan's administration fought for Amnesty for our much maligned illegal aliens back in 88'...Food for thought. BYTW, we are doing pretty much what the Russians were doing in Afghanistan... an occupying force buttressing our concerns...Regan wasn't much of anything.

Mary....I found your post charming...no, wrong word....appealing.
It was a well-put summary of the Left's view of President Reagan.

Of course, in the grand sweep of history, it is factually incorrect. While I have no illusion that a post or two will alter a view based on a lifetime of Liberal propaganda, let me offer a couple of points.

1. "Ronald Regan was responsible for terror attacks on 9-11."
I can see where you are coming from, as Reagan supported the Russian's enemies, but the basis for that is the following:
It was the great British Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, who pointed out that great powers had "no eternal friends, only eternal interests".

a. If you need a focus for Islamofascism, it was Democrat Jimmy Carter who installed the ayatollah and his regime in Iran. This was the impetus for the movement.

2. "I believe we would have been better served IF the Russians had WON."

I wonder if this is in your calculation:
"One Soviet surrogate, North Vietnam, had beaten the United States in Southeast Asia. Another, Cuba, had anchored Soviet-bloc power in the darkest heart of Africa, in Angola. America had just lost Iran to the Islamists led by Ayatollah Khomeini, and with it, one of Washington's key allies in the Middle East. Finally, as Carter's America was being humiliated by Iranian hostage-takers and held up to ridicule by botched rescue gambits, the Soviets were forging into Afghanistan--as Alexander the Great had done on his imperial march to India. What would have happened had Western Europe finally buckled, had it refused to station INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces) ? Moscow's boldest dream would have come true: to separate Western Europe from its transatlantic protector, to create zones of inferior security and, thus, to end up dominating the entire continent."
The "amazing and mysterious" life of Ronald Reagan - page 3 | National Interest, The

3. "Ronald Regan worked to destroy unions."
Ronald Reagan, after all, had fired 11,000 traffic controllers, even though their union was one of the few that had supported him in 1980. He fired them because he said he would if they walked off their jobs.
That's one union.


Results of a recent Rasmussen poll found that 9% of nonunion workers were interested in joining a union. For public school grads, that means that 91% have no such interest. In fact, maybe that means that 9% are public school grads who didn’t learn to read on their own. (Just 9% of Non-Union Workers Want to Join Union - Rasmussen Reports™)
Rasmussen found that even workers in companies who were in danger of losing their jobs, it was still only 9%. What do the 91% know about union membership that the 9% don’t? One can only conjecture.

Seems that is unions that worked to destroy unions.

4. I'm certain that you don't want to include the amazing turn-around in the economy that Reagan orchestrated.

 

[Article 15]

USA!
USA!
USA!

USA!
USA!
USA!

 

[Mr. H.]

... I married my ex in 1981. A day that will live in infamy.

 

[PoliticalChic]

... I married my ex in 1981. A day that will live in infamy.

OMG!!

No body warned you???
You had the same look-out as Pearl Harbor!

 

[Artevelde]

I think Ronald Regan was responsible for terror attacks on 9-11. He helped the Taliban and the fledgling Al queda (bin Laden) with all sorts of support to fight the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, their loss was heralded as Russia's "Vietnam". I believe we would have been better served IF the Russians had WON.... Ronald Regan worked to destroy unions. Ronald Regan's administration fought for Amnesty for our much maligned illegal aliens back in 88'...Food for thought. BYTW, we are doing pretty much what the Russians were doing in Afghanistan... an occupying force buttressing our concerns...Regan wasn't much of anything.

This is a complete lie. The Taliban and Al Qaeda didn't even exist yet when Reagan was President.

 

[konradv]

On this day, in 1987

In front of the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, President Ronald Reagan declared, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” It took two years before the wall came down.

With vision and strength of will, this President defeated the 'Evil Empire' without firing a shot.

Put Ron on the Rock.

Reagan said it, but did Gorbachev do it? I recall it being done by the German people, themselves. Give credit where credit is due. They had no idea whether they'd succeed or be shot. They're the real heroes.

 

[tinydancer]

I think Ronald Regan was responsible for terror attacks on 9-11. He helped the Taliban and the fledgling Al queda (bin Laden) with all sorts of support to fight the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, their loss was heralded as Russia's "Vietnam". I believe we would have been better served IF the Russians had WON.... Ronald Regan worked to destroy unions. Ronald Regan's administration fought for Amnesty for our much maligned illegal aliens back in 88'...Food for thought. BYTW, we are doing pretty much what the Russians were doing in Afghanistan... an occupying force buttressing our concerns...Regan wasn't much of anything.

Political Chic covered all the other bases quite well.

I'd like to zero in on the Taliban. Benazir Bhutto funded, aided and abetted the Taliban. They were her babies.

Benazir was one bitch from Hades and I have no doubt that she can call Hell her permanent residence. And I am thrilled she can call the Lake of Fire home.

She wrought utter hell on the people of Afghanistan with her Taliban.

Hey, that's why we had to go to Afghanistan if you connect the dots because the Taliban aided and abetted AQ.

I hate that bitch. I digress.

Here's the link:

The meteoric rise of the Taliban started when Benazir Bhutto was the Prime Minister of Pakistan in the mid-1990s.

Nasrullah Babbar, the Interior Minister in her Cabinet, was alleged to be the key architect of the Taliban, which started out as a small, armed movement of former madrassa students.

Babbar was a mentor of sorts to Mullah Mohammad Omar, who went on to head the Taliban. When the Taliban movement took on the Afghan warlords, the Pakistan Army put its ammunition dump in Spinboldak at the disposal of the Taliban, leading to the chain of events that eventually saw the Taliban ensconced in Kabul.

The Benazir mission

 

[PoliticalChic]

On this day, in 1987

In front of the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, President Ronald Reagan declared, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” It took two years before the wall came down.

With vision and strength of will, this President defeated the 'Evil Empire' without firing a shot.

Put Ron on the Rock.

Reagan said it, but did Gorbachev do it? I recall it being done by the German people, themselves. Give credit where credit is due. They had no idea whether they'd succeed or be shot. They're the real heroes.

So....Obama shouldn't get credit for killing OBL.

OK.

 

[PoliticalChic]

I think Ronald Regan was responsible for terror attacks on 9-11. He helped the Taliban and the fledgling Al queda (bin Laden) with all sorts of support to fight the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, their loss was heralded as Russia's "Vietnam". I believe we would have been better served IF the Russians had WON.... Ronald Regan worked to destroy unions. Ronald Regan's administration fought for Amnesty for our much maligned illegal aliens back in 88'...Food for thought. BYTW, we are doing pretty much what the Russians were doing in Afghanistan... an occupying force buttressing our concerns...Regan wasn't much of anything.

Political Chic covered all the other bases quite well.

I'd like to zero in on the Taliban. Benazir Bhutto funded, aided and abetted the Taliban. They were her babies.

Benazir was one bitch from Hades and I have no doubt that she can call Hell her permanent residence. And I am thrilled she can call the Lake of Fire home.

She wrought utter hell on the people of Afghanistan with her Taliban.

Hey, that's why we had to go to Afghanistan if you connect the dots because the Taliban aided and abetted AQ.

I hate that bitch. I digress.

Here's the link:

The meteoric rise of the Taliban started when Benazir Bhutto was the Prime Minister of Pakistan in the mid-1990s.

Nasrullah Babbar, the Interior Minister in her Cabinet, was alleged to be the key architect of the Taliban, which started out as a small, armed movement of former madrassa students.

Babbar was a mentor of sorts to Mullah Mohammad Omar, who went on to head the Taliban. When the Taliban movement took on the Afghan warlords, the Pakistan Army put its ammunition dump in Spinboldak at the disposal of the Taliban, leading to the chain of events that eventually saw the Taliban ensconced in Kabul.

The Benazir mission

Spot on, tiny.

If I can, let me add the reason for the support of the Taliban, the 'students.'

Pakistan created the Taliban. Pakistan was founded with an Islamic character. When Bangladesh broke away it was due to ethnic diversity, and the Pakistanis remembered this.

So when Afghanistan needed aid after the Russian invasion, they only supported Islamic groups, and thus the secular and nationalist factions whithered on the vine.

The Pakistani Army would rather make deals with the Talibani factions than fight them, but if push comes to shove, they will repel them: recall the Red Mosque events.

 

[MaryL]

This really bothers me ( I don' hate Ronald Regan. My opinion is of little matter). I lived through the Regan administration and the legacy he left. I am not debating anything , either. I know were we Americans are NOW. We can split hairs over the details, but what happened in Afghanistan was ultimately Ronald Regan's responsibility. Now that Regan is gone, we have this cult of personality that worships him. I don't think Regan would have wanted that.

I wondered if intervention in another country's affairs was justified THEN, and here we are again NOW, thirty-some years later. The blow back, the side effects, they are always hard to predict...I think the terrorists attacks in 2001 can be attributed directly to Regan's ardent support of the "freedom fighters" in Afghanistan. I would love to know what Regan's reaction to all this would be now, years later. Regan would probably muse that even Brezhnev or Andropov's brand of communism beats ANY brand of Muslim extremism any time of the week.

 

[PoliticalChic]

This really bothers me ( I don' hate Ronald Regan. My opinion is of little matter). I lived through the Regan administration and the legacy he left. I am not debating anything , either. I know were we Americans are NOW. We can split hairs over the details, but what happened in Afghanistan was ultimately Ronald Regan's responsibility. Now that Regan is gone, we have this cult of personality that worships him. I don't think Regan would have wanted that.

I wondered if intervention in another country's affairs was justified THEN, and here we are again NOW, thirty-some years later. The blow back, the side effects, they are always hard to predict...I think the terrorists attacks in 2001 can be attributed directly to Regan's ardent support of the "freedom fighters" in Afghanistan. I would love to know what Regan's reaction to all this would be now, years later. Regan would probably muse that even Brezhnev or Andropov's brand of communism beats ANY brand of Muslim extremism any time of the week.

Hi, MaryL.
Actually, your opinion matters: opinions are the coin of the realm around here.
Some are based on firmer footing than others.

If you have the time to read it, the following will give you a better grounding.


1. Continuing the Islamic revival are the Iranian Revolution of 1979, and the emergence of Al-Qaeda.

a. The Iranian Revolution represented massive change, socially, economically, and ideologically. To judge the impact, Khomeini’s pictures are in all the student dorms in Indonesia, although Khomeini—like the Iranians in general—is a Shiite, and the Indonesians are Sunnis.

b. Al-Qaeda and the defeat of the Russians in Afghanistan, the withdrawal of the defeated armies into Russia, the collapse and breakdown of the Soviet Union, was considered a Muslim victory in a Jihad. As Osama bin Laden put it: “In this final phase of the ongoing struggle, the world of the infidels was divided between two superpowers—the United States and the Soviet Union. Now we have defeated and destroyed the more difficult and the more dangerous of the two. Dealing with the pampered and effeminate Americans will be easy.”

2. Two major factors added to the mix produce the picture we see today.

a. The first of these—founded by a theologian called Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, who lived in a remote area of Najd in desert Arabia—is known as Wahhabi. Its argument is that the root of Arab-Islamic troubles lies in following the ways of the infidel.

b. The other important thing that happened—also in the mid-20s—was the discovery of oil. With that, this extremist sect found itself not only in possession of Mecca and Medina, but also of wealth beyond the dreams of avarice. As a result, what would otherwise have been a lunatic fringe in a marginal country became a major force in the world of Islam.
https://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=2006&month=09



2. Pakistan created the Taliban, and the Taliban gave AlQaeda a home in Afghanistan. Pakistan was founded with an Islamic character. When Bangladesh broke away it was due to ethnic diversity, and the Pakistanis remembered this.

So when Afghanistan needed aid after the Russian invasion, they only supported Islamic groups, and thus the secular and nationalist factions whithered on the vine.

The Pakistani Army would rather make deals with the Talibani factions than fight them, but if push comes to shove, they will repel them: recall the Red Mosque events.



3. The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran has been compared in importance to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. “The central problems of world affairs today spring from the Iranian Revolution much as those of the 20th century sprang from the Russian Revolution.” Book review: The Shah - WSJ.com

Without the support of oil money, and theological support of Iran, the problem would be minor.


4. Khomeini and his allies in Iran actually reached out to the Americans, to whom he promised a) to hold the country together, calming the unrest, b) to keep the communists out, and c) to keep the oil flowing. That’s all Carter had to hear! Carter then intercedes with the Iranian military on behalf of Khomeini and in opposition to Bakhtiar, and that the US would not support any coup in favor of the Shah. In 1991, Bakhtiar was assassinated.

a. Carter believed that Khomeini would support democracy, contrary to all that he had written while in exile. In over 110 interviews he gave in Paris in the three months prior to re-entering Iran, he never mentioned the rule of the ‘juriscouncil,’ the clerical guardianship, i.e., the regime in control currently. He promised that he would retire to a life of study, and “…leave all powers to the people.”

b. The first constitution that was written was democratic! Khomeini flew to Iran in February, ’79. Within weeks he began to marginalize democracy forces. Soon a new constitution was written with the rule of the guardians at its center. November 4, of ’79 was the attack on the US embassy and taking of the hostages for 444 days.

This from Dr. Abbas Milani, the Director of the Iranian Studies Program at Stanford University. His recent book is “The Shah,” is based on ten years studying the archives of the United States and of Britain.


So, it is the march of history that is responsible for the Islamofascism we see today....but if you need to find one individual to blame...

....it is the naive Jimmy Carter, not the great Ronald Reagan.

 

[daveman]

On this day, in 1987

In front of the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, President Ronald Reagan declared, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” It took two years before the wall came down.

With vision and strength of will, this President defeated the 'Evil Empire' without firing a shot.

Put Ron on the Rock.

Reagan said it, but did Gorbachev do it? I recall it being done by the German people, themselves. Give credit where credit is due. They had no idea whether they'd succeed or be shot. They're the real heroes.

So....Obama shouldn't get credit for killing OBL.

OK.

That's different. Somehow. It just is. You racist traitor!!

There, did I get that right, USMB Obamabots?

 

[whitehall]

They built the monument to intolerance during JFK's term and all he did was send the old crook, LBJ over there to convince Germans it wasn't such a bad thing. Later JFK took the trip himself with a little army of fawning media types and gave a speech and went home to rave reviews while Germans were being shot in the back.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Reagan said it, but did Gorbachev do it? I recall it being done by the German people, themselves. Give credit where credit is due. They had no idea whether they'd succeed or be shot. They're the real heroes.

So....Obama shouldn't get credit for killing OBL.

OK.

That's different. Somehow. It just is. You racist traitor!!

There, did I get that right, USMB Obamabots?

It is so very difficult to keep the rules of the double standard straight!
I may have to use Governor Palin's scribble-on-your-hand method.

But...I am chagrined.