Sponsored Content




Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups

NoVaMoMe 2024: 06/08/2024
Arlington, VA
Details to follow


Texas MoMe 2024: 10/18/2024-10/19/2024 Corsicana,TX
Contact Ben Had for info





















« Don LeMon's Co-Host Kailtin Collins -- the One He Screamed At a Couple of Months Ago -- Fires Her Agent Because That Agent Also Represents Don LeMon | Main | Quick Hits »
March 16, 2023

The Neocons Lie When They Say They're Promoting "Regan's Rules."
Reagan's Rules Were Nearly the Complete Opposite of What They're Pushing.

Byron York: DeSantis' critics say he's out of "the mainstream" on Ukraine. They're wrong. He's mainstream, they're not.

What to make of DeSantis's answers? Has he taken Putin's side against America? Has he moved to the extremes, the crazy fringes, of the Ukraine debate? No, he hasn't. There is a range of opinion on what the U.S. should do in the Ukraine matter, and DeSantis occupies an entirely legitimate position, no matter what his more excitable critics might say.

Lindsey Graham just claimed that Ronald Reagan would begin shooting down Russian planes right now.

He would? Does Lindsey Graham realize that Regan faced the actual Soviet Union, in full expansionist empire/funding terrorism mode, and had ample opportunity to "start shooting down Russian jets" over his eight year presidency? Does Graham think that Reagan wanted to give the order to begin World War Three, but kept missing his opportunities?

It is imperative to remember that Ronald Reagan actually used US forces very little. He mounted a very small expedition to Grenada, a casualty-free intervention. He agreed to insert US Marines into Lebanon as peacekeepers -- and then deeply regretted the decision, when terrorists blew up their base.

Through the CIA, he funded anti-Soviet mujahadeen fighters. He did not send US jets to "shoot down Russian planes" or helicopters in Afghanistan.

And he fired a cruise missile at Qadaffi.

Here are Reagan's actual rules for sending US troops into harm's way.

If Reagan was the man who sent the Marines to Lebanon, he was also now to be the man who decided he would be the man to remove them. To get out. He knew that this was a bad situation. Doing this would send a signal of weakness to some (and indeed, years later Osama Bin Laden said just that.) But Reagan had no intention of committing Americans to a full-scale war in the Middle East. And the MFN peacekeeping operation with the British, French and Italians had failed abysmally. So....he pulled out the troops. And home they came.

Which prompted Reagan to eventually write out a set of four principles. Four principles, he would write in his memoirs, that were specifically designed "to guide America in the application of military force abroad, and I would recommend it to future presidents."

Here they are:

Reagan Rule 1: The United States should not commit its forces to military actions overseas unless the cause is vital to our national interest.

Reagan Rule 2: If the decision is made to commit our forces to combat abroad, it must be done with the clear intent and support to win. It should not be a halfway or tentative commitment, and there must be clearly defined and realistic objectives.

Reagan Rule 3: Before we commit our troops to combat, there must be reasonable assurance that the cause we are fighting for and the actions we take will have the support of the American people and Congress. (We felt that the Vietnam War had turned into such a tragedy because military action had been undertaken without sufficient assurances that the American people were behind it.)

Reagan Rule 4: Even after all these other tests are met, our troops should be committed to combat only as a last resort, when no other choice is available.

Does this sound like the rules being pushed by Lindsey Graham, David Frum, Bill Kristol and all the rest of the neocons?

No, of course not. Because what they are contending for is not a continuation of Regan's use-of-force policies, but the Bush family's promiscuous rules for using force. Use it early, use it often, and use it incompetently.

Remember, Bill Kristol was part of Bush the Elder's administration -- at least, he was an advisor to VP Dan Quayle, and got himself mentioned in a lot of "news" articles as "Quayle's Brain" -- not part of the Regan Administration. It was Bill Kristol who invented "National Greatness Conservatism," in which America can only repent for its sins, and prove its greatness, by constantly sending our troops all over the face of the earth to fight all the dragons the chickenhawk Kristol was certain were in need of a good slaying.

And it was in Bush the Younger's administration when these "defense intellectuals" had their greatest impact, using 9/11 as grounds to put their theories of "Muscular Foreign Policy Idealism" to the test.

They seem to be the only people on the planet who have not yet realized that their theories failed, bloodily and humiliatingly.

And they know that they are pushing Bush's policy of foreign intervention promiscuity, not Reagan's.

But the Bushes are very badly tarnished brand, and Reagan remains a strong one. So they lie and claim the Bushie Foreign Policy they're pushing is really Reagan's.

It's not. They're liars and scumbags, weak men determined to send strong men off to die so they can get high huffing on some Secondary Testosterone.


Below, Tucker Carlson runs tape of Lindsey Graham demanding we actually kick off World War Three by shooting down Russian planes -- tossing off this suggestion so cavalierly you might suspect his brain is damaged -- and the various unrepentant necons/Bushies, and the mere leftwing Democrat opportunists, once again insisting that we must never have a single debate or dissenting voice on any of our many, many, unending, unwinning military operations.


Here's Bill Kristol's "Republican Accountability Project" once again smearing anyone who doesn't buy into Kristol's latest foreign war a traitor, coward, and unpatriotic conservative.

Say, Bill, you're so in favor of sending men off to war, quick question: When have you, or any male member of your family, or any male member of the staffs of all of your grifts, ever volunteered to serve in the armed forces?

Just wonderin', Hero!





Recent Comments
Nova Local: "69 "Local news here quietly discussed that most/al ..."

redridinghood: "Wishing all a blessed Good Friday. ..."

LinusVanPelt : "No. Burr was a POS, certainly. But it was a duel, ..."

Rufus T. Firefly: ">>>Local news here quietly discussed that most/all ..."

Village Idiot's Apprentice: ""Local news here quietly discussed that most/all w ..."

Ben Had: "..., boggles the mind, it does. May Spring bring ..."

Nova Local: " And the names of the two deceased workers who's ..."

... : "We MUST defend Ukraine. And we MUST stop Israel ..."

Dem Propagandists: "Republicans made Obamacare expensive and unafforda ..."

Ben Had: "JT, Good morning. Hope all is well with you ..."

JT: "Hiya BenHad ! ..."

m: "Where's our SFGoth? ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64