“So often in the past there has been a division between left and right, between capitalists and communists or socialists, and especially in the Americas, that’s been a big debate Those are interesting intellectual arguments, but I think for your generation, you should be practical, and just choose from what works. You don’t have to worry about whether it neatly fits into socialist theory or capitalist theory. You should just decide what works.”Of course, that's just one piece of a Latin American junket that included doing The Wave with Raul Castro at a Cuban exhibition baseball game, the photo op in front of the Interior Ministry building (the Cuban government department that harasses and arrests dissidents) sporting a giant Che Guevara mural, and the tango video. All while a multiple-site, well-coordinated ISIS attack rocked Brussels and a separate such attack was thwarted in Paris.
What a steaming chunk of dog vomit.
Sounds like he pisses you off as much as his intent to piss the terrorists off. Can't find the quote right now, but didn't Bush tell us to go about our business as usual and to not let the terrorists get any satisfaction out of our anger and fear? Tango really shakes them up. What do you want him to do? Congress wants to do it anyway. Call a special session of Congress, place the military on high alert and freak out the entire nation? What would Cruz do other than return to Cuba to lecture and admonish? Then would he hole up in the Pentagon plotting strategy? You guys are going overboard again. Insults seem to be the way of things these days. Love your guys eating at eachother over their women. Turning us even more off to politics as unusual.
ReplyDeleteYou can't be serious with the above nonsense salad. Yes, Tom Ridge said we should continue to go to ball games, take in movies, whatever. But in the hours following a major terrorist attack on Western civilization, his reaction was lamentably disgusting and tod us everything we needed to know about his freedom- hating priorities
ReplyDeleteYou mean ISIS enjoys seeing him Tangoing in Argie? A lot of people think Reagan went way too far on his own trying to eradicate Communism militarily in Central & South America. Did it work?
ReplyDeleteISIS wants his head too you know. We are all part of their Great Satan or whatever these crazies call us. I like it that Obama is the counter Cheney-Rummie who would be frothing at the mouth and urging us all to do the same.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe people who think Reagan "went way too far on his own trying to eradicate Communism militarily in Central and South America" were wrong. And it did work. Latin America went through a period when socialism was on the wane after the Sandinistas were defeated - at the ballot box in 1990, when Violeta Chamorro beat Daniel Ortega for president, - and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front was defeated in El Salvador's civil war and ARENA became the predominant force in the country's politics.
ReplyDeleteWhen the MEC conducts himself shamefully as he did on this trip, it sends signals, not just to ISIS, bu the leaders of Europe and even elsewhere that the US president has no interest in assuming the role of leader of the fee world.
A lot of people are wrong then. My brother was in the Peace Corps in Honduras and saw first hand the arrogance and hubris of our troops. How much different were these efforts than that of the Roman Empire, Germany and Japan in WW II? This was not even diplomatic imperialism. Whatever works for a country is OK by me, even if socialism never works, they'll find out sooner or later.
ReplyDelete"Reagan also declared the absurd war on drugs, which until this day has made little impact in the amount of illegal drugs sold in the streets of America. But it is an excuse for the expansion of military power, paramilitaries, torture, the repression of social movements and the death of thousands in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. After a decade of spreading blood and misery throughout Latin America, the Reagan administration ultimately failed to achieve its goals. Despite continued support for the military juntas of South America, democratic movements ultimately overthrew all of them."
- See more at: http://www.progressive.org/news/2004/06/749/reagans-legacy-latin-america-marked-obsession-failure#sthash.ruLUz9V3.dpuf
Just as the Reagan administration was forced to dance an intricate step in the early 1980s as it sought to use force as a routine part of statecraft, current and future administrations face similar challenges. Yoshitani’s analysis facilitates a better understanding of the Doctrine and how it might be applied by American national security managers today. This corrective to the common wisdom about the Weinberger Doctrine’s goals and applicability to contemporary issues will appeal not only to diplomatic and military historians, but also to military leaders and general readers concerned about America’s decision making concerning the use of force.
ReplyDeleteRead more at https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=RxgXGL44BOoC&source=productsearch&utm_source=HA_Desktop_US&utm_medium=SEM&utm_campaign=PLA&pcampaignid=MKTAD0930BO1&gl=US&gclid=CNm40MHY3ssCFWKJMgodNaQG4A&gclsrc=ds
Someday somebody may cite doing the wave with Raul Castro at a Cuban exhibition baseball game, the photo op in front of the Interior Ministry building (the Cuban government department that harasses and arrests dissidents) sporting a giant Che Guevara mural, and the dancing the tango as responsible for the deaths of millions, who knows?
ReplyDeleteIf America is indeed exceptional, it does not need to force us on others as the proof is in the pudding. Seems you think we should act like many of our old mans did, do as they say, not as they do. The rest of the world wants to buy from an honest salesperson maybe.
DeleteYou cannot seriously believe that vile shit you have put on the record by typing it into this comment thread, "whatever works, even socialism.'" There is no concept that more runs counter to human nature and the war human beings naturally interact with each other
ReplyDeleteRe: your excerpt/ link from progressive.org, it is a infantile excercise in generalization in the extreme. "Spreading blood and misery" . . . Save that dog vomit for Unitarian coffee hour
ReplyDeleteCan you love people and lead them
ReplyDeletewithout imposing your will?
Can you deal with the most vital matters
by letting events take their course?
Can you step back from you own mind
and thus understand all things?
Giving birth and nourishing,
having without possessing,
acting with no expectations,
leading and not trying to control:
this is the supreme virtue. --Tao Te Ching
Yep, I believe it, so why don't you kill me
DeleteAnd there you have, folks, exactly why we call 'em Freedom-Haters
ReplyDeleteLao Tse a Freedom-Hater?
ReplyDelete"The 8 years Reagan was in office represented one of the most bloody eras in the history of the Western hemisphere, as Washington funneled money, weapons and other supplies to right wing death squads. And the death toll was staggering–more than 70,000 political killings in El Salvador, more than 100,000 in Guatemala, 30,000 killed in the contra war in Nicaragua. In Washington, the forces carrying out the violence were called "freedom fighters." This is how Ronald Reagan described the Contras in Nicaragua: "They are our brothers, these freedom fighters and we owe them our help. They are the moral equal of our founding fathers."
Read more at http://www.democracynow.org/2004/6/8/reagan_was_the_butcher_of_my"Reagan Was the Butcher of My People:" Fr. Miguel D'Escoto Speaks From Nicaragua
"History records the power of the ideas that brought us here those 7 years ago-ideas like the individual’s right to reach as far and as high as his or her talents will permit; the free market as an engine of economic progress. And as an ancient Chinese philosopher, Lao-tzu, said: “Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish; do not overdo it.” (laughter) --Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Speech, 1988
ReplyDeleteRead more at Reagan's 1988 State of the Union — Frontiers of Freedom http://www.ff.org/library/reagan-legacy/speech-reagan-1988-01-25/
Another great legacy of Ronald Reagan is the drug war he ramped up to the point of property seizures and mandatory minimums. You might have a cockeyed view of freedom.
ReplyDelete"Fifty years of drug policies aimed at restricting and criminalizing drug use and minor possession have had serious detrimental effects on the health, wellbeing and human rights of drug users and the wider public, according to a major new report by The Lancet and Johns Hopkins University in the US."
read more at http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/308275.php
Miguel D-Escoto was an evil Marxist-Leninist.
ReplyDeleteThe Nicaragual resistance was a noble effort to reclaim the post-Somoza era from the totalitarian Sandinistas. I used to send them money whenever possible.
Who gives a shit about Ronald Reagan's drug policies?