OT: Up or Down, Not Right or Left

[Guest guest]

Hey Karen,

 

> Good quote from President Reagan......

 

I think is more than good .. its outstanding .. and thank you. :-)

 

The younguns on the list can't remember what it was like to live with

the threat of thermonuclear war at any time .. it could have happened at

any time .. and there would late have been much regret .. but it would

have been too late. Ronald Reagan goes down in history as the one who

removed that threat.

 

There were some back then who opposed his build up of US Military power.

They claimed it was not possible to fight Communism and we were merely

giving them more incentive to attack us. One who opposed him is now

running for the office of President of the USA .. its not Bush.

 

But Ronald Reagan had method to what they called his " madness. " He told

the USSR up front that if they wanted an arms race the USA was willing

to hang in there with them .. but that he knew they could not keep up

because our intelligence agencies knew more about their economics than

they did and they were in deep kimchi .. few in the USSR wanted to tell

the truth to the Politburo and few in the Politburo wanted to hear the

truth.

 

" The two contenders met, with all their troops, on the field of Camlan

to negotiate. Both sides were fully armed and desperately suspicious

that the other side was going to try some ruse or stratagem. The

negotiations were going along smoothly until one of the knights was

stung by an asp and drew his sword to kill the reptile. The others saw

the sword being drawn and immediately fell upon each other. A

tremendous slaughter ensued. " -- Herman Kahn, " On Thermonuclear War "

 

This chronicle points to the excessiveness of the needless slaughter

because the battle took place without preparations and premeditation.

Some more quotes we might want to take note of ..

 

" The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of

cause. " -- William James

 

> " You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left

> or right, but I would like to suggest that there is no such thing as a

> left or right. There is only an up or down -- up to a man's age-old dream,

> the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order -- or

> down to the ant heap totalitarianism, and regardless of their sincerity,

> their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security

> have embarked on this downward course. " --Ronald Reagan (cited at

> http://federalist.com/pub/04-25_Brief.htm )