Bush Attacks Reagan’s Approach To Terrorism, Then Praises It
Bush Attacks Reagan’s Approach To Terrorism, Then Praises It
Today, President Bush chose to talk about terrorism at an event commemorating the new Air Force One exhibit at the Reagan library. He praised Reagan for “never backing down in the face of evil”:
[Reagan] recognized that freedom was opposed by dangerous enemies. And he understood that America has always prevailed by standing firmly on principals – and never backing down in the face of evil.
This contrasts with a speech Bush made in August in which he questioned Reagan’s response to the 1983 Marine baracks bombing in Beirut. Bush said:
[Terrorists] believe that democracies are inherently weak and corrupt and can be brought to their knees. They looked at our response after the hostage crisis in Iran, the bombings of the Marine barracks in Lebanon, the first World Trade Center attack, the killing of American soldiers in Somalia, the destruction of two U.S. embassies in Africa, and the attack on the USS Cole. They concluded that free societies lack the courage and character to defend themselves against a determined enemy. [V-J Day Speech, 8/30/05]
Looks like Bush was against Reagan’s response to terrorism before he was for it.
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Maybe he thinks the Beirut thing happened when Carter was president. Bush seems unaware of huge areas of reality.
October 21st, 2005 at 3:18 pmthe day the indictments are handed down, this will be big news
October 21st, 2005 at 3:19 pm“capture of bin laden!” http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2005%5C10%5C20%5Cstory_20-10-2005_pg7_7
meantime, can you say ‘on ice?’
This gets a red color?
October 21st, 2005 at 3:19 pmBush is stupid, what do you expect?
October 21st, 2005 at 3:21 pmRonnie Raygun is rolling over in his grave.
I voted against Ronnie 2x. But he had more honesty in him than dumbya will ever ever have. Now don’t get me wrong. An honest politician, RR was not. Just listen to some of his old campaign statements.
At least Ronnie nor bush43 can run for a 3rd term.
October 21st, 2005 at 3:23 pmI agree, dumbstruck.
October 21st, 2005 at 3:25 pmA Bush generalization and subsequent contradiction is a better example of his and Rove’s stupidity, not a real attitude toward Reagan.
what can I say? he’s a slick flip-flopper…
October 21st, 2005 at 3:29 pmWho really cares what either one of these asshats has (had) to say. They are both losers – Bonzo and Chimpus.
October 21st, 2005 at 3:36 pmThe non response after the Cole Incident was BUSH’s call – not Clintons. It took a while to figure out who did it and by the time they did, Bush was in office. But then, since tax cuts were far more important than fighting terrorism, the couter response was never ordered.
October 21st, 2005 at 3:39 pmhehe, that’s funny. Kind of like how kerry voted against the war and voted for it.
October 21st, 2005 at 3:40 pmI always love how republicans accuse democrats of ‘flip flopping’, yet they can’t remain consistent on a single thing. Heck, wasn’t deficit spending considered to be the worst sin imagineable by Reagan when he was campaigning against Carter – only for him to go on and rack up the biggest debts in history (prior to the current idiot?).
They make fun of others, only because they themselves are trying to avoid people making fun of them first!
October 21st, 2005 at 3:41 pm#10 I thought that reminded me of something…
October 21st, 2005 at 3:42 pmHmmm…I hate to play devil’s advocate, but I’m thinking that Bush was referring to Carter in this quote. Correct me if I’m wrong (please!) but I thought that the Iranian hostage crisis occurred during Carter’s administration, then the hostages were returned immediately after Ronnie took office. Now, I realize that I have killed off quite a few brain cells smoking the wacky weed, but that sticks out in my mind.
October 21st, 2005 at 3:51 pmPlease correct me?!
..Doesn’t it seem odd that a President who conducts foreign policy like he’s trying to get in touch with his inner-cowboy would be so intent on turning his own country into a herd of spooked sheep?
But with Karl Rove curled up into a fetal ball awaiting the word of a certain grand jury, and the rest of the team either fending off the FBI or dusting off their curricula vitae, Bush is kind of on his own. So he’s playing the hole card, the only thing that’s ever worked for him. Be very, very afraid.
Terrorists, hurricanes, bio-agents, wild fires, housing bubbles, social insecurity, gay people getting married, be very, very afraid…
You can’t call it terror if you’re not afraid of it.
October 21st, 2005 at 3:59 pmJane,
Not only were the released during the Reagan administration, but the release came through an illegal arms deal – and through illegal negotiations of Cheney/Reagan while Carter was president. They committed treason – republicans have a habit of that!
October 21st, 2005 at 4:21 pmJane, Bush also referred to Lebanon. That was Reagan.
October 21st, 2005 at 4:26 pmWell, I hate to repeat, but
October 21st, 2005 at 4:28 pmhypocrisy is the only “value” you can
count on from the C**3 (crooked crony conservatives).
I wonder what Bush thinks of his daddy delaying the release of our Iranian hostages until Reagan was in office? There seems to be a running theme of “anything for political gain” in that party.
October 21st, 2005 at 4:45 pmFlip-Flop.
October 21st, 2005 at 4:48 pmI have lost count of Bush’s flip-flops — has the number caught up to his lies yet?
“Not only were the released during the Reagan administration, but the release came through an illegal arms deal – and through illegal negotiations of Cheney/Reagan while Carter was president.”
I remember the second part of that (the “october surprise”) but I don’t remember Iran/Contra being involved – that happened after the Boland amendment was enacted, right?
October 21st, 2005 at 5:16 pmThe Boland amendment was 1982, the arms deal with Iran was already struck before then. The whole sleazy thing with Reagan was treason, pure and simple. He should have been impeached, tried, and schackled!
October 21st, 2005 at 6:35 pmRyan -
that is speculation — there are no facts to support what you said.
Iran agreed to accept $8 billion in frozen assets and a promise by the United States to lift trade sanctions in exchange for the release of the hostages.
this was one (maybe not the only one, but the only factual one we have) reason why they let the hostages go.
October 21st, 2005 at 6:52 pmIt’s not speculation right of you. It’s clearly established.
http://www.lovepeoplenotmoney.com/cached/octsurp.sick.oped.html
The Iranians have been very candid of this in recent years.
October 21st, 2005 at 7:17 pmryan -
i have read that article by Sick before. I see that there are many people who give their ‘verbal’ evidence. But he also states that there is no smoking gun — I am the type that knows that something shady may have went on, but I need more than verbal confirmation. Maybe one day there will be docs that are declassified, until then, as I said – its just speculation. It may have happened, and it appears that some people support this happening — but no solid proof.
i understand what our govt is capable of.
October 21st, 2005 at 7:26 pmryan -
but i will be looking into this…it wouldnt suprise me — national security archives has a book on iran-contra, with a section entitled “arms for hostages” — this book is based on declassified docs…i will let you know what i find out.
October 21st, 2005 at 7:29 pm“From Oct. 15 to Oct. 20, events came to a head in a series of meetings in several hotels in Paris, involving members of the Reagan-Bush campaign and high-level Iranian and Israeli representatives. Accounts of these meetings and the exact number of participants vary considerably among the more than 15 sources who claim direct or indirect knowledge of some aspect of them.”
That’s more of a smoking gun than was used to attack Iraq. If you accept the ‘evidence’ used to justify the war in Iraq, then this amount of evidence far surpasses it.
Your party accepted verbal confirmation from a single witness in over 100 intelligence reports used to justify the Iraq war. Clearly the ’standards’ used by the ‘right’ would be satisfied by 15 sources all saying basically the same thing.
My experience of republicans though is when the truth is in front of them and they don’t like the answer their standards inconsistently shift to cover their own asses. In otherwords, you guys tend to be lying hypocrites.
Fact: Iran released the hostages 5 minutes after reagan was elected.
October 21st, 2005 at 7:33 pmFact: They would have no ‘incentive’ to do this unless there was a deal already cut.
Fact: It has been PROVEN that we gave them arms that we didn’t really have any reason or incentive to do unless they’d given us something significant.
Fact: 15 separate sources say a deal was struck, and those sources all say virtually the same core things.
Conclusion: all of this clearly indicates that a deal was struck, and that treason was committed!
right of you,
Bush just SEALED the reagan library private letters that normally get opened on the death of a president. This is UNPRECIDENTED and clearly he knew the revelations that might accidentally creep from these files.
The ‘fringe’ NeoCon wing of the republican party has undermined and destroyed its values and its credibility since the 70s. It has become a treacherous and deceitful force within the republican party – and daily undermines our democracy and our freedoms. It consists of treasonous and criminal individuals that no more care for american values than they care for its citizens!
I suggest you look closely at these folks – they are not US in the We and American senses.
October 21st, 2005 at 7:35 pmReagan helped create al Qaeda, which was a direct product of the campaign in Afghanistan against the Soviets.
Tom Hanks is going to star in the movie about this episode, by the way…
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472062/
October 21st, 2005 at 8:20 pmThere are all kinds of reasons the Reagan library would be sealed:
1. Iran hostages deal
2. Reagan had no role in the end of the Cold War, it was Gorbachev all the time
3. Iran-Contra
4. Cocaine-Contra
5. Arming Saddam (now that would have been embarrassing to come out in 2002/2003, you think?)
6. Savings/Loans?
7. Harken Energy?
My money is on number 4. – most relevant to the time it was done. Although 1,3,4,5,6,7 are all Bushevik Mafia activities – take your pick.
October 21st, 2005 at 8:25 pmOh thanks Carlos I missed a few:
October 21st, 2005 at 8:26 pm8. Creation of Al-Qaeda
9. Links between Carlyle group and Bin Laden contruction companies
Don’t forget proping up Saddam and selling him BIO Weapons so he could fight the Iranians they just sold weapons to. Talk about trying to be a war profiteer!
October 21st, 2005 at 9:36 pmBlessed Saint Reagan, who trained and armed UBL and the rest of AQ’s leadership as the Mujahadeen…who supported Saddam while he was using chemical weapons against Iran and the Kurds…and who lied to Congress and the American people to cover up his arms sales to Iran and secret support of Death Squads in Nicaragua.
Seems to me Bush is only digging his hole deeper!
October 21st, 2005 at 9:56 pmLeave it Soros’ hitmen to take a statement out of context, distort and contort it to be a contradiction or inconsistent. If thinkprogress actually read the rest of Bush’s statement (and where actually around when Reagon was president) they would know Bush was refering to Russia who was the biggest threat to our democracy at the time – the face of evil. Remember?
The statement in context, Bush continues with:
“At the beginning of his presidency, Ronald Reagan declared that the years ahead would be great ones “for the cause of freedom and the spread of civilization.” He dismissed communism as “a bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages were being written.” For eight years he acted on that conviction, and shortly after he left office, the Berlin Wall came down, the “Evil Empire” collapsed, and the cause of liberty prevailed in the Cold War.
And the Soros Leftoid Robots are fooled again. When will they learn to scrutinize the propaganda they read here?
October 21st, 2005 at 10:39 pmSoros was the man who brought the freemarket and democracy to eastern europe. Your description of him as a ‘leftist hitman’ is not only nonsense, its more reicwhing fascist nazi clinical insanity.
Hitler acted out of conviction as well, your justification for fighting ‘dirty wars’ is typical of people who are nuts. Before you accuse others of spreading propaganda, you should stop defending the propaganda of others and that you SPREAD. You’re an idiot, and a traitor to america!
October 22nd, 2005 at 12:46 amLeave it Soros’ hitmen to take a statement out of context, distort and contort it to be a contradiction or inconsistent. If thinkprogress actually read the rest of Bush’s statement (and where actually around when Reagon was president) they would know Bush was refering to Russia who was the biggest threat to our democracy at the time – the face of evil. Remember?
The statement in context, Bush continues with:
“At the beginning of his presidency, Ronald Reagan declared that the years ahead would be great ones “for the cause of freedom and the spread of civilization.†He dismissed communism as “a bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages were being written.†For eight years he acted on that conviction, and shortly after he left office, the Berlin Wall came down, the “Evil Empire†collapsed, and the cause of liberty prevailed in the Cold War.
And the Soros Leftoid Robots are fooled again. When will they learn to scrutinize the propaganda they read here?
October 22nd, 2005 at 10:28 amOld Bushie is a flip floper. When we had the election last year the Republican and the media talked about Kerry being a flip floper but old Bushie beats Kerry on that subject 100%. What do you expect from a c student at Yale or Harvard.
October 22nd, 2005 at 11:39 amDVDA was completely corrected, and shown to be a lying idiot propagandist – and what does the moron do? Repost the same lie. CONSERVATIVES ARE STUPID!
Soros was the man who brought the freemarket and democracy to eastern europe. Your description of him as a ‘leftist hitman’ is not only nonsense, its more reicwhing fascist nazi clinical insanity.
Hitler acted out of conviction as well, your justification for fighting ‘dirty wars’ is typical of people who are nuts. Before you accuse others of spreading propaganda, you should stop defending the propaganda of others and that you SPREAD. You’re an idiot, and a traitor to america!
October 22nd, 2005 at 1:41 pmBush did the same thing FDR. History and truth are meaningless to these people. For more check out,
http://blogforallseasons.blogspot.com/2005/10/spinning-history-out-of-control-part-i.html
October 22nd, 2005 at 5:14 pminnovative jotting?Juanita decoder!nonintuitive speeders gifts proximate dreariness
December 12th, 2005 at 11:04 pmHello Echo chamber,
Bush’s statement praising Reagan refers to his posture against the Soviets. His statement castigting Reagan refers to the posture against Islamists.
Before 9/11, many people considered the Islamists to be an annoyance, but today we see that they are more than that and must be addressed similarly.
December 22nd, 2005 at 12:45 pmauthorizer.Erie imperiously!Cupid inquiring marveled luminous
December 29th, 2005 at 6:43 pmFree Sprint Ringtones…
Free Sprint ringtones…
January 18th, 2006 at 5:49 pm