A Conservative's view

Jim Pinkerton at Newsday notices the neocons glomming onto the Reagan aura and compares old Ronnie with Nitwit Dubya. I stole the last two paragraphs but read the whole thing here.

Indeed, Reagan avoided any significant and protracted commitment of U.S. troops anywhere. In 1982, to be sure, he ordered U.S. forces into Lebanon for a peacekeeping mission. But after a suicide bomber killed 241 Marines the following year, he saw that he had made a mistake, and he pulled the troops out, giving no thought to "liberating" Lebanon. It was a small, sad chapter in American history, but at least Reagan kept it from becoming a big, sad chapter. [Emphasis mine]

And so, the Cold War drew to its victorious close just months after Reagan left office in 1989. In his eight years, Americans fired barely a shot. That was the Reagan Doctrine, and it worked brilliantly. The claims of today's neoconservatives notwithstanding, the Bush Doctrine is something else entirely.

Pinkerton is a real Conservative, not a Jesus freak, and I respect his opinions.