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My favorite president of the last 100 years is Reagan as well. And I consider him an icon, who pulled us out of economic malaise and foreign policy defeatism. That said, the ME was not one of his great success stories. He was too busy with the Soviet Bear, but nonetheless, his inattention (and pullout from Lebanon) only emboldened the islamofacists who were brewing their hatred long before slick Willie came into office. So Bush has been dealt the hand to stomp out the islamo scum. It is an ideology that will fight everybit as hard as the communists, maybe harder, to hold onto whatever power they have. And though I disagree with GWB on a host of issues, his handling of the ME is not one. It is ONLY because of him that Afghanistan and Iraq, two of the 6 major players in the terror-sponsoring state cadre, are toast. And Libya threw in the towel because it saw the writing on the wall. He has a spine of steel, which only a handful of presidents before him have had.

I couldn't disagree more. Reagan was a leader in ME policies. He was the one who crossed Qaddafi's "Line of Death" and emasculated Libya's military force. He was the one who slyly outsmarted the Ayatollah and Saddam and kept them off balance killing each other in the Iraq-Iran war while sending the money he got from sales of arms to both to Nicaraguan freedom fighters to beat back communism. And he defeated the Soviets in Afghanistan.
Your claim about Bush's ME policy has yet to materialize as we are in both Iraq and Afghanistan with our soldiers fighting terror everyday...In retrospect, Reagan, IMHO, would have conjured up some sort of scenario where Iraq was fighting Afghanistan over the rights to Iran's oil, with thousands of Islamists dying, and we were getting the war profits by selling all of them arms for oil!

(Pres. Reagan) was the one who slyly outsmarted the Ayatollah and Saddam and kept them off balance killing each other in the Iraq-Iran war while sending the money he got from sales of arms to both to Nicaraguan freedom fighters to beat back communism.

The Iraq-Iran war began in Sept. 1980, before Pres. Reagan was elected. It had its antecedents from the time of the Shah, who forced Saddam into giving Iran a favorable position on the Persian Gulf.

The guns-for-hostages ploy was a fiasco that didn't hurt Saddam or the Ayatollahs, and didn't break the mold of hostage taking of Americans which lasted in Lebanon for a decade.

You sound too young to keep yearning for the good ol' days. The President we have, and the loyal team that has served him for 5.5 years now, is the best I've seen in my 40 plus years of awareness.

While I have little problem seeing muslim countries fight each other, Saddam was not going to be fighting the Taliban, they were in cahoots. Saddam supplying poison gases, passports, etc for the taliban protected jihadis to spread their "message". Bush is a cleared eyed realist. Democratizing the ME and/or creating allies in the war against the islamo fascists is the best long term solution.

To this day, Hezbollah's biggest victory was killing 240 US Marines. Yet they are still alive and kicking, but not for long.

Boy, that Reagan could walk on water!

The fact is trading arms for hostages was a bad policy, made necessary by a bad Congress, a Democrat controlled, pro-Communist one.

Bush is taking the fight to the Muslims and has liberated two of their nations and put them on the defensive.

Also, the fact that Iraqi oil will be on the market will be a blow to the real power behind Islam, the Saudi's.

Our troops in Iraq also are nice leverage against any attacks against Israel by Syria and Iran.

He was the one who crossed Qaddafi's "Line of Death" and emasculated Libya's military force.

Qaddafi's "Line of Death" was in international waters. Navigating international waters is something any president would do. BFD. As far as "emasculating Libya's military force", I believe we sunk a couple of ships and we hit some radar. BFD again.

He was the one who slyly outsmarted the Ayatollah and Saddam and kept them off balance killing each other in the Iraq-Iran war while sending the money he got from sales of arms to both to Nicaraguan freedom fighters to beat back communism.

Iran and Iraq had been fighting for years. Nothing new there. However I will give Reagan an "A+" for what he did in Central America...and it is smart of GW to use Reagan's former point man in C.A. John Negroponte to head the CIA.

Bush's ME policy has yet to materialize as we are in both Iraq and Afghanistan with our soldiers fighting terror everyday...In retrospect, Reagan, IMHO, would have conjured up some sort of scenario where Iraq was fighting Afghanistan over the rights to Iran's oil, with thousands of Islamists dying, and we were getting the war profits by selling all of them arms for oil!

You're kidding, right? Your scenario reads like pulp fiction.