Caption - Reagan

http://www.vcsc.k12.in.us/staff/mhutch/modpres/reagan/photos.htm ^ | 24 Feb 2003 | SirChas

[SirChas]

Saddam, I'll come over there and kick your flea infested butt all by myself if you don't get rid of those WMDs!

[Jhoffa_]

Feel free to post a pic of Reagan and, what he might say at this time if he were still President.

What would he be saying today?

"And we were justified in removing Saddam during the Gulf War.. Had we left him in power, it would have been a grave mistake that could have haunted us for decades."

[eleni121]

And Chavez - your ass is grass, and I'm the lawnmower.

Love it!

President Reagan is and will always be my hero.

[Arpege92]

Well....there you go again Saddam!

[SamAdams76]

Your post hasn't offended me at all! Like I've been saying for years in this forum, I think Reagan was a good man and a great president. The way the Beirut bombing was handled was a great mistake however. As others have mentioned, there may have been reasons for not taking action. But nevertheless, it just doesn't sit well with me. My opinion is that if we weren't prepared to take action, we shouldn't have been over there at all.

[harpo11]

"As for the enemies of freedom,
those who are potential adversaries,
they will be reminded that peace is the highest
aspiration of the American people.
We will...sacrifice for it,
we will not surrender for it--now or ever.

Our forbearance should never be misunderstood.
Our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of will.
When action is required to preserve our
national security we will act.
We will maintain sufficient
strength to prevail if need be,
knowing that if we do so we have the best chance of
never having to use that strength.

Above all we must realize that no arsenal
or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable
as the will and moral courage of free men and women.

It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have.
It is a weapon that we as Americans do have.
Let that be understood by those who practice terrorism
and prey upon neighbors.

God bless you all.
And God bless the United States of America."

Source: President Ronald Reagan's Inaugural Address

[SamAdams76]

Thank you, and SirChas, for your gracious comments. I had expected to get flamed for saying what I just said. But that bombing was a brutal terrorist attack on America and it should have been avenged. The death toll was almost 1/10th that of the 9/11 attacks. The Marine Corps is a relatively small branch of the Armed Services and many Marines in my unit knew people who were over there. The morning after the bombing, we all lined up at formation and the CO of my unit gave a rousing speech. He told us to "pack our bags" because we were surely going to be sent over there to kick some terrorist ass. But the call never came.

[Optimist]

>>>>>>PING<<<<<<

Rintense, the pics on this thread (few that they are) bring back the nostalgia of another great decade. What can you do to offer up a dose of Reagan?

[Physicist]

Well I hate to rain on the parade but I was in the Marine Corps when 241 of my fellow Marines were slaughtered by terrorists in Beirut.

Thank you.

Despite the tough talk by the Reagan Administration, not a damn thing was ever done about it.

Well, for one thing, Reagan got our troops the hell out of a situation where they were in harm's way, with no mission or means of defending themselves, and with no benefit to American interests. Not every President learns that lesson.

That said, I am a big Reagan fan and think his presidency was very good for America. But this particular issue hits a nerve with me everytime it comes up.

Yeah, whoever brought it up shouldn't have.

[NewRomeTacitus]

"I say to Saddam, have more grace than Hitler and sacrifice yourself instead of your people. But that would imply you aren't a gutless mistake."

[SirChas]

I guess it's just difficult to have a public post of any kind and not hit a nerve with someone. Sometimes the military did present major frustrations that we had no control over but just had to deal with.

In your case I can understand why a Marine would feel the way you do.

If I may be permitted, Semper Fi , from an Airman.

[scott7278]

I would hope that no one would flame you for telling the truth about your experience in the Marine Corps! It's a shame that the call never came...it should have, IMHO.

And yes, I am a fan of the great Ronaldus Magnus -- but I am no idolator. What's right is right -- something should have been done.

[SamAdams76]

I guess it's just difficult to have a public post of any kind and not hit a nerve with someone.

Please don't let that deter you. You are right, of course. Many a time I have posted something here in innocence that was taken quite differently by somebody else. It happens in a public forum. Especially one as big as this. A thick skin is an absolute requirement around here! But please don't take my earlier comment as a repudiation of your post, I know it was well-intentioned.

Terrorism has plagued our society for decades now. Presidents other than Ronald Reagan have had to make tough choices, and in those choices, they are often damned if they do and damned if they don't. Maybe Reagan had good reason not to avenge the Beirut bombings that killed so many Marines. Only he and maybe a few close advisors can answer that. I sincerely hope that President Bush follows through with his war on terrorism. Even if it may cost him the presidency. This terrorism must be stopped. As Winston Churchill once said about the British government during the Nazi buildup in 1934:

We must face the storm. We will have to encounter every form of unfair attack. Our motives will be misrepresented. We will be calumniated and called warmongerers. Every kind of attack will be made upon us by many powerful, numerous, and extremely vocal forces in this country. We are going to get it anyway. Why, then, not fight for something that will give us safety? Why, then, not insist that the provision for the [military] should be adequate, and then, however severe may be the censure and however strident the abuse which we have to face, at any rate there will be the satifactory result - that His Majesty's Government will be able to feel that in this, of all matters the prime responsibility of a Government, we have done our duty.

Churchill said this during a time when the Allies (including Britain) stood by and watched as Hitler's Germany broke the Versailles Treaty and began assembling the war machine that would result in so many millions of needless deaths. We had the power in the mid-1930s to stop Hitler. But we did not do so. Instead, we sat around and talked of "Peace for our time." Pacifism and appeasement were the rule. And we suffered greatly.

Churchill did finally become Prime Minister of England, but only when it was too late to stop the war. By then, France, the "peace-loving pacifist" nation, had already fallen. And we had to expend the lives of hundreds of thousands of American and British soldiers to bail them out.

And how was Churchill rewarded by the good people of England when the war was won? He was bounced out of office. But it wasn't re-election that Churchill wanted. It was the saving of his country. We need more leaders like this today and I hope President Bush and even Prime Minister Blair are up to the task today.

Semper Fi!

[sheik yerbouty]

"Go ahead Sassam. Make my day!"

[sheik yerbouty]

Make that Saddam..

[WFTR]

Maybe it won't comfort you at all for me to say this, but I believe that President Reagan was never able to avenge the bombing of the Marine barracks for the same reason that he was never able to control the social spending that he criticized. In spite of his personal popularity, he just never had the votes. Many of us would have supported him in whatever strong reaction he might have made against the Muslim terrorists, but many others would not have supported those actions. Unfortunately, many who supported him still voted Democrats in Congress, and those Democrats kept him from doing many good things that he wanted to do. Our Founding Fathers gave us a Constitution that makes it difficult for government to act. Unfortunately, the 20th century has given us a federal bureaucracy that makes productive action even harder and counterproductive action self-propagating. If we want to fix anything, we'll have to generate massive momentum to do what is right. I hope that President Bush will be able to keep that momentum in the fight against Muslim terrorists.

WFTR
Bill

[PatrioticAmerican]

My favorite Reagan quote, "They counted on us being passive...they counted wrong."

[It's me]

Oh gosh! I miss that man!

[Physicist]

I believe that President Reagan was never able to avenge the bombing of the Marine barracks for the same reason that he was never able to control the social spending that he criticized. In spite of his personal popularity, he just never had the votes.

Perhaps, but I believe the main problem was identifying and finding those responsible. If a nation is responsible, it's easy. Reagan showed no hesitation in kicking Qadaffi's rear, and if the barracks bombing could have been traced to, say, Assad, then I'm sure Damascus would look very different today. Fighting a terror network is much harder: whom do you shoot? What do you destroy? Beirut was already a pile of rubble.

We didn't avenge Khobar towers or the Cole for the same reason. For better or worse, though, the game has changed since.

[E Rocc]

You can keep your promises, or we can keep them for you.

-Eric