WHAT WOULD REAGAN DO? (not what Bush is doing in Iraq)

[IronLionZion]

This is actually from Friday, but click on the link and read the whole thing. Reagan fucked up often, but not like Bush.

"Because if Jimmy Carter had 18 helicopters instead of nine in Desert One" -- the mission to free American hostages in Iran -- "you'd be briefing him now instead of me."

Reagan made mistakes, plenty of them. But he learned from them. His worst foreign policy blunder may have been a reckless aside in a 1983 press conference saying the mission of U.S. Marines in Lebanon, part of a multinational peackekeeping force, was to train the official Lebanese army. Actually, they were there, stationed at the Beirut airport, to keep Muslims and Israelis apart.

The Lebanese army was essentially Christian, enemies of the Shiite Muslims living in the slums around the airport. "America is the enemy" began to blare from the mosques. On the night of Oct. 23, 1983, a suicide bomber drove a truck into the lobby of the Marine barracks, set off a huge explosion and killed 241 Marines.

Reagan's response was to talk tough about staying the course, then "redeploy" the Marines -- safely onto American ships in the Mediterranean. Cut and run.

"What would Reagan have done after 9/11?" That was another regular question. My answer was that he would have focused American resources, not foreign irregulars, to track down Osama bin Laden, as he tracked Gadhafi. Then he would declare victory and get on with life.

Go into Iraq? With half the troops needed? With a shifting, contradictory mission? Maybe. But I doubt it. What was the point? What is the point now? Do what Reagan would have done if he were foolish enough to go in in the first place: Redeploy the troops, cut and run.

http://tinyurl.com/n2sns