Parallel Seen in Reagan's, 'Dubya's' Handling of International Threats
by Chad Groening
June 9, 2004
(AgapePress) - A former assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan Administration says the current U.S. president is following the same principle that defined President Reagan's legacy: peace through strength.Frank Gaffney, who is president of the Center for Security Policy, worked in Reagan's Defense Department from 1983 to 1987 when the late president was rebuilding America's military and setting the stage for the defeat of Soviet communism. Gaffney says there are many similarities in the current war on terror.
"This terror that we're confronting and fighting all over the world is, in most cases, powered by another ideology with global ambitions -- something I call 'Islamo-fascism,' brought to us by a radical subset of the Muslim faith," Gaffney explains.
"In applying the principle of peace through strength in the war on terror, I think President Bush is taking an important page from Ronald Reagan's book -- and hopefully it will have equally salutary effects."
Gaffney says people must remember that like President Bush, President Reagan was vilified as a "cowboy" whose conduct was dangerously belligerent. But Gaffney says Reagan's policy brought down the Soviet empire.
"The most important legacy that Ronald Reagan left was the proven philosophy of peace through strength -- a philosophy that he articulated and applied most decisively with respect to bringing down the Soviet Union," he says. "It is also, I think, a philosophy that is guiding President Bush in the present global conflict, which bears in fact some important similarities to the Cold War -- what some call 'World War Three.'"
Gaffney says as the nation prepares to pay its last respects to Ronald W. Reagan, there is no question as to what the 40th president's legacy will ultimately be.
