"Ronald Reagan's legacy is clear. It can be seen in the twin philosophies of peace through strength and security through the spread of liberty, from the liberation of Iraq to the larger push for democracy in the Middle East as a way of combating terrorism," writes Brendan Miniter in Opinion Journal:
There is a time for choosing between standing up and fighting for liberty or sitting back and allowing evil to triumph. This is no quaint notion, but something that is at the heart of our politics today and central to our foreign policy and our security . . .
Reagan understood that those who oppress others around the globe eventually come to threaten Americans at home. That's why he liberated Grenada a few days after the Lebanon bombing, crossed Moammar Gadhafi's "line of death" and in a thousand other ways signaled to the world that America was no longer ashamed to take a stand for freedom, through force of arms if necessary.
This week President Bush is meeting in Sea Island, Ga., with the leaders of the industrialized world. At the meetings the president is pushing for a resolution demanding democracy, equal rights for women and a greater respect for human rights in the Arab world. Of the many tributes to Reagan, this is perhaps the most fitting. Reagan helped liberate millions in Eastern Europe and fought to save millions more in Latin America and elsewhere from the oppression of communism. Today's struggle against the tyranny of terrorism and Islamism is in line with the fight Reagan waged. Fundamentally both are moral struggles. Mr. Bush is picking up where Reagan left off and using individual liberty to undermine the tyrants who attack us.
As we said here yesterday, the opposition was/is shrill and self-serving and short-sighted. Are we strong enough to stay the course?
Presidents Reagan and our present President proclaimed the optimistic outlook of the Tragic Vision. It is much more apt to lead to a better world for humans than the unrealistic dreams of those who follow the Utopian Vision.
Posted by: goomp | June 08, 2004 at 12:42 PM
If world leaders had understood this, and listened to Churchill's oft repeated - in vain - warnings during the mid-thirties, 55 million souls might have been spared.
Posted by: Tuck | June 08, 2004 at 05:35 PM