Word: reagan
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...fall has been precipitous. Who among us is unscathed? Not many. Even if none of your family members died in combat, you had no money with Madoff and you own your house free and clear, you most likely still took a hit. To paraphrase the question Ronald Reagan posed years ago, Are you better off today than you were at the beginning of the decade? For most of us, the answer is a resounding no. Let us count the ways. For one thing, the stock market is down 26% since 2000, making this the worst decade for stocks. (Inflation-adjusted...
...Reagan and Diplomacy...
...Wall Came Down," Romesh Ratnesar asserts that Reagan's biggest weapon during the Cold War was to use diplomacy and that "Obama's challenge now is to do the same" [Nov. 9]. Unfortunately, unlike communist states, Iran follows the theological-political dogma of radical Islam, which aspires to have all others submit to that ideology. Radical Islam sanctions death for the greater cause. Conversely, communism is based on a secular ideology, and Cold War leaders didn't follow a doctrine that supports dying for the cause. Diplomacy in our current situation may end up being...
Ratnesar is generous in crediting reagan, who urged Gorbachev to "tear down this wall," as a champion of diplomacy. Other one-liners were not quite so diplomatic. In 1984, Reagan said, "We begin bombing in five minutes," over a microphone he thought had been turned off. For some, this supposed joke is an example of his hawkishness not only toward the former Soviet Union but also toward Grenada, Cuba and others. If this is what counts for "diplomacy," no wonder we are in such trouble...
...Wall Came Down" focused strictly on the fall of the wall, as though that were the fulcrum of the collapse of the Iron Curtain. Reagan's insistence on putting short-range nuclear weapons in Europe, against all foreign-affairs wisdom, broke the will of the Soviets for a renewed arms race and--more than anything else--brought down the wall...