The Cold War warmeth
In these times, we could use a Reagan .. and some Lennons
Comments (...)When I was young, we had the Cold War. I’m not sure what we have today. The Lukewarm War?
The threats against our country are probably more real today. We know, in retrospect, that the Soviet Union wasn’t as powerful as they wanted us to believe. I wonder if that was their doing or our own?
The threats we have today are worse, I think, because they come from several different, unstable fronts. There are more fingers on more buttons and the fingers belong to madmen. I have no doubt that Iran or North Korea or China would do us grave harm if they thought they could get by with it. That doesn’t even consider threats from Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere including small, independent cells.
Back in the day, we had Ronald Reagan. Regardless of politics and policies, Ronald Reagan was someone you could believe, and foreign leaders feared him. If Reagan went up to a foreign leader and said, “You better stop doing this or we will obliterate your country,” that leader would believe him. I don’t know that we have anyone like that today.
We think Iran is gearing up for nuclear weapons, but we don’t know. We thought Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, too. We don’t know what to believe, and that can be scarier than knowing.
A nuclear scientist got blown up in his car, and it’s believed that the assassination was intended to thwart Iran’s nuclear program. And I’m supposed to feel good about this? Yea, team?
I don’t know what to think. I prefer to not think about it. But how can you not?
No one has taken credit for the assassination, as far as I know, but all indications point toward Israel. Israel, the Holy Land. Land of Jesus where Christianity was born — love one another, turn the other cheek and all that.
Don’t get me wrong. If there’s a threat, you have to respond to the threat. War, whether it’s declared or not, is an ugly business but you have to defend yourself even if it means an offensive strike. So, don’t think I’m soft on Iran.
Frankly, I think the worse threat is China. China has figured out that economic warfare can be more effective than bombs and missiles. We have become reliant on China to the point of dependent. For years, we bought cheap goods made with slave labor until we were loathe to spend the extra money on our own goods. We can’t afford to make things here if we can’t sell them. As citizens, we blame our government and our corporations for sending jobs overseas; yet, we’ve all had a hand in that.
And whoever thought it was a good idea for our government to borrow money from a Communist country such as China? We won’t even allow cigars to be imported from Cuba but we’ll buy anything from China including credit. Never mind their record on human rights, air quality, water quality, etc. We would never allow an American country to treat its employees and the Earth the way China does, but we’re all too eager to enjoy the cheap products that result. I’m not excluding myself from blame. I’ve always advocated for the global economy, but the globe seems awfully lopsided.
There’s a lot of talk about American values and returning to those core tenets that our forefathers fought for. But we spend so much effort on attacking ourselves that we tend to overlook the lack of American values in our foreign policies.
I don’t lose sleep at night thinking about gun rights, gay marriage and marijuana sales. I’m just happy each morning when there’s not a mushroom cloud rising up in the distance.
You’d think that at some point, modern thinkers could figure out how we could all live on this planet without shooting at each other. Maybe we need a Reagan figure, but I think we could use a few more John Lennon types, too.
Lennon — shot and killed by a madman. Oh, the irony.
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©Copyright 2012 by David Porter, who can be reached at david@ramblinman.us. All rights reserved.
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Leave it to Interpol Porter to make a wild guess and blame israel for whacking the nuclear scientist. but we're all entitled to our opinions. Im guessing someone in Langley was watching the fireworks on a big screen with satellite feed. |
