is his world the one we want to live in?
http://hnn.us/articles/5585.html Reagan has earned his greatest acclaim as a champion of world freedom. His clarion calls to the citizens of the Soviet Union and its satellites invigorated resistance to communism and contributed to the end of the Cold War. But the Reagan Administration invoked a constricted definition of freedom. It included not the Four Freedoms defined by Franklin Roosevelt in World War II--which included not only freedom of speech and religion, but also freedom from want and fear--nor an overall rejection of dictatorship and tyranny. Freedom, in the Reagan sense, meant only a release from communism.snip
Reagan Administration officials bequeathed the title of "freedom fighters" and lavished support on Muslim extremists in Afghanistan and contra terrorists in Nicaragua. In Iraq, American officials embraced the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein in its war against neighboring Iran, despite knowledge of Hussein's use of poison gas on the battlefield.Most of all damning about the two-faced creep:
The absence of sacrifice was emblematic of a host of Reagan's policies. Not surprisingly Reagan embraced a fanciful economic doctrine that assumed the nation could simultaneously lower tax rates, increase tax revenues, expand defense spending, and avoid deficits. When some aides pointed out that this might require cutting back on popular programs like Social Security or Medicare, Reagan rejected these options as well. In this area, as in the realm of environmental concerns, the indulgences of the present could be passed on to future generations for resolution or reckoning.And they're passed on to *, who'd rather cut social programs than fix the mistakes his mentor/horselover Reagan helped to make.
At the start of the twenty-first century the United States and the world adhere more closely to Reagan's vision than at any time during his adult life. United States foreign policy operates in a unilateral universe, a dominant military power unchecked by powerful foes, treaty obligations, international law, or entangling alliances. The extremes between not only rich and poor, but rich and middle class, have grown ever wider. Conservatism has replaced liberalism at the core of American political discourse. The social contract of mutual dependence and governmental oversight forged during the New Deal has been rewritten to reflect a less compassionate brand of unrestrained economic acquisition and individualism. In reflecting upon Ronald Reagan's death it is time for Americans to ask if this is the world that we really choose to live in.It
is time for Americans to ask if this is the world that we really choose to live in. So how come the mainstream media (newsweek, us news, time, et al) still reverse this antediluvian cretin as some sort of god?!