Yes, Irene, I am an anti-war person. There is NOTHING that can be said that would make me believe that a peace cannot be found……no matter the situation.
The “realist” theory of international relations has done nothing to make the world a safer place or to prevent the deaths of Americans. The neocons have lead the charge to more and more wars….Americans need to pull their heads out of their butts and take a good look at what is happening to the world we want to leave to our grandchildren.
There was a time when I thought that Reagan would be a good thing for the country…no I did not vote for him…..but he was traveling down a road that could have lead to a peaceful world……(you might want to mark this day because that will be the nicest thing I will ever say about Reagan)…….
When Ronald Reagan turned his back on the neoconservatives, fired them, and had some of them prosecuted, his administration was free of their evil influence, and President Reagan negotiated the end of the Cold War with Soviet President Gorbachev. The military/security complex, the CIA, and the neocons were very much against ending the Cold War as their budgets, power, and ideology were threatened by the prospect of peace between the two nuclear superpowers.
I know about this, because I was part of it. I helped Reagan create the economic base for bringing the threat of a new arms race to a failing Soviet economy in order to pressure the Soviets into agreement to end the Cold War, and I was appointed to a secret presidential committee with subpeona power over the CIA. The secret committee was authorized by President Reagan to evaluate the CIA’s claim that the Soviets would prevail in an arms race. The secret committee concluded that this was the CIA’s way of perpetuting the Cold War and the CIA’s importance.
Source: How The American Neoconservatives Destroyed Mankind’s Hopes For Peace
As the American people go to the polls in November they should keep in mind that the world is ablaze and the next president can either throw fuel on it or find a way to extinguish it…….which will be best for the country…..the people not the industries?
That’s also the best thing I have to say about Raygun. All the people around him were telling him “They’re down, go for the jugular!” Some were even suggesting military invasion the Evil Empire’s territories/allied nations, if not rolling tanks into Moscow itself.
But Raygun had the rare good sense to recognize Gorby’s new direction and make a deal with him to end this nonsense (for a while, at least). Maybe because Raygun remembered (ha-ha) the lesson of WW1’s surrender agreement that ensured a WW2.
I think we are giving Raygun too much….I think it was an accident or it came form Jean Dixon’s astrology chart…
No, we all have our “off days” when we aren’t quite ourselves. I think This was Raygun’s. Either that, or he just needed his Hollywood happy ending before he rode off into the sunset.
Excellent post, though not for the Reagan reference…. you actually nailed it in one when you spoke of the motivation of the neocons, who could also be called the oligarchs, for they are the ones who make the money from conflict. I don’t believe as you note, any of what happened had anything to do with Reagan; he was probably asleep during the essential meetings anyway. But, also as noted, it doesn’t take much to fool a public who still considers him ‘The Great Communicator”, and a statesman, when what he was was a less than adequate actor with a bunch of handlers, well in the pockets of his financial backers, who manipulated him with exquisite skill.
gigoid, the dubious
Yeah,,,Reagan does get more credit than he deserves….but that is just how the GOP rolls…chuq
The Americans who go to the polls in 2017 will be going for one purpose and one purpose only — to vote for whatever they think they are going to receive in return for their votes … The old “What’s in it for me?” thing. They will not be thinking about their futures or the futures of their kids or the defense of the country or any other damned thing except for what they think they are going to get in return for their votes.
That has been it for 50 years…..and candidate support is for the same reason…what will he/she do for me and mine?