by Stephen P. Pizzo

Conservatives worship Ronald Reagan because, they will tell anyone who stands still long enough to listen, Reagan “brought down the Evil Empire -- the Soviet Union.” How did he do that? Simply by bankrupting the Soviets by luring them into an arms race so ridiculously expensive they simply bled themselves white financially.

But we libs have become so accustomed to just assuming anything conservative claim is little more than a self-serving lie, that we fail sometimes to appreciate the occasional truth. That story is a perfect example. That’s exactly how it happened. Ronald Reagan’s threat of a fanciful and, at the time at least, technologically impossible missile defense -- “Star Wars” -- system drove the commies nuts and, in the end drove them into full-blown systemic collapse.

So, if conservatives got that lesson right, how come they’re doing the exact same thing to their own country and their own economy now? And, let’s be fair and balanced here, it’s not just conservatives. A supposedly liberal administration has not only followed along with this madness, but raised the ante.

Oh hell, read the piece below then meditate on that question, and its implications for you, your kids and your grandkids. Because somewhere in the mountains of Pakistan there’s a Ronald Reagan kinda guy in robes chuckling at how easy it’s been to sucker “The Great Satan” into the same trap we suckered the Evil Empire into. Irony upon irony.

What’s Our Sputnik?

by Thomas L. Friedman

Dick Cheney says President Obama is “trying to pretend that we are not at war” with terrorists. There is only one thing I have to say about that: I sure hope so.

Frankly, if I had my wish, we would be on our way out of Afghanistan not in, we would be letting Pakistan figure out which Taliban they want to conspire with and which ones they want to fight, we would be letting Israelis and Palestinians figure out on their own how to make peace, we would be taking $100 billion out of the Pentagon budget to make us independent of imported oil — nothing would make us more secure — and we would be reducing the reward for killing or capturing Osama bin Laden to exactly what he’s worth: 10 cents and an autographed picture of Dick Cheney.

Am I going isolationist? No, but visiting the greater China region always leaves me envious of the leaders of Hong Kong, Taiwan and China, who surely get to spend more of their time focusing on how to build their nations than my president, whose agenda can be derailed at any moment by a jihadist death cult using exploding underpants.

Could we just walk away? No, but we must change our emphasis. The “war on terrorists” has to begin by our challenging the people and leaders over there. If they’re not ready to take the lead, to speak out and fight the madness in their midst, for the future of their own societies, there is no way we can succeed. We’ll exhaust ourselves trying. We’d be better off just building a higher wall.

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