General Zinni on Sixty Minutes

In article ,
(WalterM140) wrote:

Your history is failing you again. But, I digress. The fact of the
matter is that US containment policy was consistent from Truman
through the collapse of the SU in 1989. To ascribe it to one party or
the other is definitely revisionist.


But to give credit to Reagan alone -- per you- is not.

Surely you can do better than this.

Walt


I think that most readers would say I did do better. You started by
saying that Reagan was the worst president (a near tie, according to
you with Bush 43.) You asserted that he always took the easy way out.

That's all true.

Reagan approved illegal activity. He should have been impeached and
convicted.

Aside from the reality with Clinton, I've now heard suggestions that
LBJ, Nixon, Reagan, and Bush 43 be impeached. We've had the California
circus of recall.

Impeachment and recall are the large thermonuclear weapons, approaching
doomsday machines, of American politics. Polarized views and the
demonizing of dissent are, at least, cluster munitions.

There comes a point where real-time revenge, and real-time investigative
journalism and partisan witch-hunts become an inherent danger to the
viability of the political process. Most Presidents have approved some
form of illegal activity. For "thermonuclear release", there needs to
be a clear and present danger to the Constitution. While Nixon, for
whom I actively campaigned, was showing a fairly extensive pattern of
violations, I can find Reagan's Iran-Contra and Clinton's zipper worthy,
perhaps, of censure. I find it very difficult to see these events of an
importance that has a significant chance of inhibiting the rest of
government, as all eyes focus on the center ring.