Reagan, Bush and Arafat

The Ronald Reagan Ranch

D'souza discusses Reagan's efforts to end Communism:

During his first term Reagan pursued tough anti-Soviet policies aimed at curtailing the Soviet nuclear threat and stopping Soviet advances around the world. Calling the Soviets an “evil empire,” Reagan initiated a massive defense buildup. These measures were fiercely resisted by liberal Democrats, who decried Reagan’s policies as confrontational and likely to make nuclear war more likely.

OK that one is easy but check out this one:

Reagan immediately recognized Gorbachev as a new breed of Soviet leader. He supported Gorbachev’s reforms and arms control initiatives during his second term, when many conservatives criticized him for being naïve and credulous. William F. Buckley, Jr. warned that Reagan’s new stance was “on the order of changing our entire position toward Adolf Hitler.” Columnist George Will mourned that Reagan had “accelerated the moral disarmament of the West by elevating wishful thinking to the status of political philosophy.”

These criticisms missed the larger current of events that Reagan alone appears to have understood. In attempting to reform communism, Gorbachev was destroying the system. Reagan encouraged him every step of the way; as Gorbachev himself joked, Reagan induce him to take the Soviet Union to the edge of the abyss and then take “one step forward.”

Even Will and Buckley missed what Reagan saw. He understood the true nature of Soviet Communism and so a changing circumstance did not confuse him. He merely adjusted his attack to respond to this new situation. Both methods were successfull because both struck at the core problems "over there" as it were.

Bush, I think, knows this lesson too. That is why we invade an Iraq, but not, yet at least, a Syria. Differnt circumstances demand different responses. As long as we understand the nature of our enemy -- we must be willing, for example, to identify an "axis of evil" -- we can devise strategies that will work.

Arafat will die soon. This may change the circumstance, but not the nature, of our Palestinian enemy. Perhaps we will work with the new leader to enact transformational reforms. Maybe we will encourage Israel to fortify its wall.

Reagan knew that to win he had to destroy his enemy, not feed it. We must be willing to destroy ours too.