Quote Originally Posted by Trainer Monkey View Post
Ok that was at least until the last paragraph a cogent argument
Now to rebut,not only was Russia losing its reliable allies,within the Iron Curtain
It had also grossly overspent on its little Afghanistan adventure,oddly enough it cost them more to get at those Natural Gas reserves then a pipeline to its own would have cost,but leaders of every country can get ridiculously pig headed.
This prompted the US to create the grain embargo,which also hit the USSR hard(this started under Carter btw)
Sorry,all of Reagans major initiatives failed
The major weapons systems he approved(Comanche,SDI)
His tax breaks(he had to pull them after a major recession)
His foreign policy initiatives(Last I checked Daniel Ortega got voted back in,were embroiled in Iraq,and the Iranians still hate us,oh yeah,the very guys we trained in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets,blew up the twin towers on 9/11)
100% snafu
The whole 8 years was a train wreck with a happy smiling conductor
I don't think I'm arguing any of the points you brought up in your rebuttal. I've said nothing about Reagan's tax breaks, and frankly I don't think he was an exceptional president, however, I do not think he was a "scumball" as you put it, certainly not any more so than the average individual in his position. You want to see some scumballs, look at the overtly racist policies of some of the earlier US Presidents, a bit off topic, I know. I don't find many of Reagans actions early in his political career particularily egregious when compared to the actions of many other world leaders, nearly everyone slits some throats on the way to the top. I agreed earlier that Reagan's policies in S. America were mildly retarded at best. I never said the military iniatives were successful in their stated purposes (Star Wars etc.), only that they put pressure on the USSR's military/economy and contributed to its downfall. I do not support the actions of Reagan in regards to pushing the world closer to nuclear war either. Nor did I debate the debacle that was Afghanistan, Canada (where I live) has troops fighting and dying there now because of the actions of the U.S. in the 80s.
If you examine the relationship between the Shah of Iran and the U.S., they have every right to hate you, without even bringing the unblinking support of Israel into the picture. Imperialism is a bitch.