If you have access to The Wall Street Journal be sure to read Kate Bachelder O’Dell’s op/ed in the October 6 issue, “What Time Is It at the Heritage Foundation?”. It’s one of the best I have read on how far this country has come since the Ronald Reagan foreign policy leadership of the 1980s and the damage that has been done by Trumpism and the national populism of his fellow travelers that has infected it. And isn’t it sad that the Heritage Foundation, “Reagan’s think tank”, of which I have been a member for over 30 years, is leading a populist appeal against additional funding in support of Ukraine in its war with Russia, a la George McGovern’s “come home America” and Barack Obama’s “nation building at home”.
What would Reagan have done? Well, first he would have rebuilt America’s national defense spending to about double the current annual spending as a percentage of GDP as a deterrent to adventures like Putin in Ukraine and the Chinese in Taiwan. Second, unlike Joe Biden, he would have sounded the message loud and clear to Americans and our allies that the end game for the West in Ukraine must be “we win, they lose”. Third, he would emphasize that, contra the Heritage Foundation and too many Republicans, there is no false choice between our domestic priorities and our role as the leader of the free world and steward of the rule of law–we must succeed at both.
Gregory Stachura says
Jim,
Though your speculations regarding Reagan are plausible, we cannot know what he would do under today’s circumstances. Reagan was the only president for whom I voted while the others were the better of two sad candidates (including Trump)
Europe has a primary interest in this conflict and Europe belongs in the primary role to signal to Russia that the combined nations of that region will not stand for Russian encroachment upon soil to the west of her.
Ukraine’s corruption has not been addressed, in your column or elsewhere. Perhaps the problem is with me, but I am not yet convinced of your enthusiasm for supporting a corrupt country at the expense of addressing our severe problems at home.
War has now broken out in Israel. Though she can defend herself the unsettling condition in another region of the world will encourage China and other ambitious nations to make moves that will require a response.
We are near bankrupt, both financially and spiritually, as a nation and cannot seem to work our way out of it.
More support for a corrupt country is not our first priority, populist or otherwise.
Jim Windham says
We can’t allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. Or, as Ms. O’Dell reminds us that Reagan said about a similar conflict in his day, “Whatever the imperfections of the democratic nations, the struggle now going on in the world is essentially between what is right and what is wrong….it is the beginning of wisdom about the world we live in.”
Danny Billingsley says
We, America, hardly hold an upper hand anymore when it comes to corruption. Additionally, we’ve paired with our fair share of corrupt regimes in the past.
vern says
Jim, You and Reagan are so perfectly on spot as usual.
Ann McCulloch says
It’s a question of right and wrong. It’s right to stand against an aggressor.
Danny Billingsley says
So, now we have hundreds of Israelies dead, many taken hostage and unknown numbers of Americans dead and captive, due to Bidens weak relations with our close ally. It’s no coincident this comes on the heels of Biden giving Iran 6 billion dollars and a greenlight to make nuclear weapons. In the meantime we’re busy insuring our military is trained in critical race theory, transsexuals are integrated into our fighting force and females are serving in all military units, from boot camp to combat. Woke indoctrination is now part of our military academies training. Insanity? No, by design.
Bob Juba says
Reagan, like most in his generation, had witnessed the folly of believing isolationism was a means to preserve peace (at least at home). In geopolitics, weakness invites chaos which eventually lands on all shores. You are on point with this essay, Jim. The “America First” folks were wrong in the late 1930s and they are wrong today. Our failure to act like the global superpower that we are only invites more war and carnage around the globe. While the Pax Americana has been fraught with hot spots of war, it has also fostered more people living more freely and prosperously at home and abroad than any previous hegemonic regime.
CHARLES SIMMONS says
The Wake – Up is too Late !
John Kerry’s daughter marriage to Iran’ s leading family, started the Democrat move several years ago, and close ties of Biden is NO surprise. All in the Family!
Expect Nothing Better coming from this EVIL GIFT GIVERS OF 6 BILLION DOLLARS AFTER SHUTING DOWN THE U.S. OIL FIELDS AND HANDING IT TO THE EVIL EMPIRE!
WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?
Gregory Stachura says
Our fiscal condition is already dire. Laying additional trillions upon our posterity (What, think you that the taxes necessary to retire thirty plus trillions in national debt will be laid upon these present generations?) is leading us to ruin. We do not have the moral spine of that generation tempered by a Great Depression.
Israel can expect our assistance with arms and intelligence. U.S. Soldiers need not be dispatched to Israel or Ukraine. Western Europe should sue for peace with Russia and stop antagonizing her with NATO.