Dwight - 21 November 2006 09:29 PM
Isn’s RR getting kind of a free pass here? He came slinking out of Lebanon after the marine barracks disaster, picked wars with 4th rate countries, but sure as hell had a presence. The man had a gift for avoiding REAL conflict, which probably makes him a statesman of sorts, but the image of him as a true tough guy seems a bit off. GWB is a true tough guy with BAD judgement. RR was mostly image, but had good judgement.
OK, I;’m convinced, I’ll take RR, but not for the reasons most people are giving here.
Dwight
Dwight, Sun Tzu or one of those guys said the best victories are those in which you don’t have to committ an army to the field (or something like that—maybe through maneuver, without a hostile shot fired?). Reagan realized that America’s greatest strategic weapon was the strength of its economy—a strength that could be maximized if entrpreneurs were liberated in a Hayekian sense. The planned economy of the soviet union was its greatest strategic weakness—again, viz Hayek and von Mises, central planning does not work, and if forced to compete with a free economy, central planning will collapse. (See von Mises on Socialism, Hayek’s Road to Serfdom)
Avoiding real conflict? Yeah, if by “real” we mean shooting wars. But RR sent the commie bear slinking back to its lair by manuever alone.—not bad for eight years work. Russia, along with Iran, is in the catbird seat now, but let oil go below $40/bbl—which it will—and the fun times are over. Ahmadinejihad realizes that, in the crude reptilian recesses of his vile mind. His moves strike me less of brilliant statesmanship than desperation.
