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Saturday, June 05, 2004
Reagan's Legacy
WaPo, June 5, 2004:
[T]he "Reagan doctrine" foreign policy...succeeded in Afghanistan...
Jane's Intelligence Review, August 1, 2001:
During the 1980s, resistance fighters in Afghanistan developed a worldwide recruitment and support network with the aid of the USA, Saudi Arabia and other states. After the 1989 Soviet withdrawal, this network, which equipped, trained and funded thousands of Muslim fighters, came under the control of Osama bin Laden.
The CIA calls it blowback. I call it kudzu. Whatever the term, we're talking about the law of unintended consequences, and I see the so-called "Reagan victory" in the Cold War as on par with the Allied defeat and humiliation of the Central Powers in WWI: it sowed the seeds of the next global conflict.
ntodd
[Update: I spaced and used the term "Axis" when I meant "Central Powers" wrt WWI. Fixed.]
June 5, 2004 | Permalink
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Comments
Thanks for the articles. Saint Reagan will be sung praises to as they begin to make plaster icons of him. His Jericho call to destroy the Berlin wall will be remembered (which of course caused the wall to fall over); but all the blunders, the Iran-Contra scandal, the discovery of Alzheimers (probably while he was in office)will be ignored like usual.
Blowback is such a descriptive word. What kind of blowback will we have from Iraq? Wait another 20 years to see. When will we ever learn?
Posted by: ellroon | Jun 6, 2004 2:20:45 AM
Kudzu is a perfect term.
I actually wonder what old Ronnie would have thought of the chimpster- I imagine he'd have been appalled and annoyed by his sheer incompetence.
Posted by: fourlegsgood | Jun 6, 2004 4:10:39 AM
His Jericho call to destroy the Berlin wall will be remembered (which of course caused the wall to fall over)
Clearly his "tear down this wall" statement is what caused the end of the Cold War. Yes, he was that powerful, but try and tell the kids today that, and they won't believe you!
Kudzu is a perfect term.
I like it better than 'blowback' because it also implies organic, creeping, entangling, smothering growth.
Posted by: NTodd | Jun 6, 2004 7:56:00 AM
ntodd,
I saw your comment re: Reagan turning Afghanistan into a hotbed of radical Islamic fundamentalism.
I loathe Reagan, Bush and neocons in general, but to be completely fair about the matter, it was Carter and Brezininski (sp) who began funding the Afghan rebel resistance to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. To be sure, Reagan kicked it up a notch, but he didn't start it.
What happened to solidify it as a fundamentalist base was the US creating a vacuum there by turning its back on the place when the only objective--giving the Soviets their version of Vietnam--was completed. Bush I let it become a failed state because we pulled the plug and walked away because the Soviets were no longer considered a threat.
Posted by: WyldBill | Jun 6, 2004 1:35:07 PM
WyldBill - granted, funding might have started before Reagan, but just as LBJ bears the brunt of responsibility for Vietnam, despite previous administrations getting the ball rolling, so too does Reagan own the results of our proxy war in Afghanistan. And his successor certainly deserves blame for not following up in the aftermath.
Posted by: NTodd | Jun 6, 2004 3:50:06 PM
It will probably be classified for another 40 years or more but I would bet lots of money the US found out Gorbi was planning on tearing down the Berlin wall when Reagan rushed there for his "Tear down this wall" photo-op moment.
Posted by: George Johnston | Jun 6, 2004 5:08:47 PM
Alas, Gorbachev doesn't get enough credit as it is. You'd think the way the wingers are talking about Reagan's role in ending the Cold War, he was Jesus Fucking Christ come down to save us all.
Posted by: NTodd | Jun 6, 2004 7:36:34 PM
Buy me stuff off my 
