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Thread: Reagan

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  1. #37

    Default Re: Reagan

    Quote Originally Posted by PanzerJaeger View Post
    Not according to Vincent Cannistraro, the CIA officer who was director of intelligence programs at the National Security Council.

    I hate to repost source material, but it is directly applicable.

    I'm not sure what role you expect a president to play in these types of activities. Reagan's vision and stated policy was to directly fund anti-communist efforts around the globe. He not only made Afghanistan a foreign policy priority, but signed a specific directive to fund a covert war, which carried significant political risk (as he later found out). He made the ultimate decision to vastly increase support to the Mujahideen including the critical Stinger missiles and deserves ultimate credit for the outcome.

    By your logic, presidents aren't responsible for any major policy enacted during their term, as none of them actually implement them.
    Hmmm. You are correct here. While this does not mean in any way that Reagan won the Cold War (which I still hold was Gorbachev's doing as well as an inherent broken economic system falling apart on itself)...yes you are probably right that ultimately, the success of the Afghanistan insurgents probably did rest on getting those Stinger missiles, which mean credit must be given to Reagan.

    Don't ever let it be said that ACIN is a stubborn ass who doesn't admit when his arguments are shown to be incorrect or correct them.

    By the way, my logic is that the president receives dozens of papers all about every topic in the world for him/her to sign and then it's lunch time. I don't consider a president incredibly responsible unless the president is actively aware about the issue and is involved deeply in the progress of the issue throughout the political process. In my opinion there are degrees of responsibility depending on the involvement of the individual president in the issue/subject. Some bills are just there for the president to sign off on, some bills/issues are undertaken by the president to be made a big deal. Each president is unique in their goals in that each president usually has personal ideas on certain issues that they want to make an impact in, more so then in others. The bills on issues that a president has put more time into then other issues bestow a greater responsibility on the president then the bills on issues he doesn't put as much focus on.

    It might not be the best system, but in my opinion, blanket statements that if it was signed on his watch then he is solely to blame is less realistic especially given the nature of how the American political system works. In a division of power setup it seems odd to always point at the president as if the veto power makes him the arbiter of what passes or not as if there is no external Congressional, special interest or public pressure on him/her.

    Overall, I still rate Reagan as below average. His domestic policies were still atrocious in my opinion. But, I will acknowledge that he did play a part in the Cold War turning out how it did, but is still enormously over hyped by the right in the country. Looking back in hindsight, perhaps it was foolish of me to think that the president of the United States would not have some involvement in the playing out of the USSR collapsing.
    Last edited by a completely inoffensive name; 09-30-2010 at 07:30.


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