If Ronald Reagan was President right now, we would be already over there helping them. All it takes is for us to show up armed and ready to go all out and Russia would back down. They have been nothing but bluff, as history has shown, from the time Kruchev pounded his shoe on the desk and said “We will bury you” until the present day. Yes they are a strong country but they know beyond a doubt they could never out due the greatest country in the world.
Liberal, appeasing, self-disarming, peace-at-any-cost governments allow an aggressive state to mistreat an ally in the hope that this will be the end of the aggression. This same scenario lead to an otherwise unnecessary WWII.
You mean the same Ronald Reagan that got us the hell out of Lebanon after the Embassy bombing?
Look, I'm as big of a Reagan fan as any here, but I think he would have been a bit more pragmatic about this.
Like Beirut '83? Great.
Considering the trouble Reagan had in Lebanon, and the current troubles in Iraq and Afghanistan, you might want to rethink the real-world ability of today’s US Military. And Reagan’s stomach for a even fight.
They are going to do to us in Georgia, what we did to them in Kosovo. And if the US fails, that will cripple our Foregin Policy for the next 20 years. Georiga is one of the strongest US Allies, voting with the US, sending troops to Iraq, joining NATO. And what happens if the US let’s Russia get away with it? It’s going to be a lot more difficult to ask smaller countries to sacrifice for US goals. We might have to give Putin a big prize in order to help Georgia - Missle Defense, Kosovo or NATO.
If we had stayed on Reagan's national defense & foreign policy course this likely would have never happened. Russia sees us as weak because three presidents since Reagan as well as both parties in congress gutted our military, kissed up to China for their own family business interest, while ignoring Russia's return to the old ways.
That big iron fist is fixing to come back down in Russia and the former Soviet Union. Had we maintained a strong national defense and got our head out of China's unmentionable for a while things might have worked out different. As it stands now our military resources are nearly maxed out due to nation building and soon will be wore out. But hey a few Republicans and Dems donors made a fortune in contracts though.
"Ronald Reagan gave hope to the "captive nations" within the Soviet Empire by calling it what it morally was. George Bush has now given hope to the captive nations within the Chinese Empire.
Last October, he met the Dalai Lama and attended the ceremony honoring him with the Congressional Gold Medal. Bush had hosted the Dalai Lama in the White House previously in November 2005.
That sent the Chicoms into spasms of apoplexy. GW compounded their outrage by meeting last week with five advocates of freedom in China - Harry Wu (you read about him in Chicoms and Chaos, January 2005), head of the Laogai Research Foundation (the Laogai are the Chicom Gulag concentration camps); Chinese blogger Sasha Gong; Chinese democracy advocate Wei Jinsheng; leader of the Chinese Christian Undergound Church Movement Bob Fu - and the champion of Uighur freedom, Rebiya Kadeer.
This is an extraordinary group of people, main leaders of freedom and democracy for China, for all the peoples of China. For President Bush to meet them in the White House right on the eve of his going to Beijing comes close to matching Reagan's moral condemnation of the Soviets.
For that is what is needed: the moral condemnation of Chicom colonialism and imperialism.
In comparing George Bush to Ronald Reagan. Nonetheless, it's illuminating to read this New York Times story from 1987: Beijing Is Backed By Administration On Tibet.
I was in Tibet when the story was written, and there are no words to describe how revolted I was by it when I read it upon my return. Reagan never supported freedom for Tibet, always supported China's tyranny, and refused to ever meet the Dalai Lama.
These Olympics are serving to make Chicom oppression just as obvious to the world as Beijing smog."
And what dues would those be, specifically?
Absolutely no good would come from GI Joe going toe to toe with Ivan.