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Some of our favorite pearls of wisdom from past and present conservative thinkers:
Ronald Reagan as told by Donald Rumsfeld:
An Imperialistic America?
"One in particular is worth mentioning here. It's a letter he [Reagan] wrote by hand in April of 1981 to Soviet leader Brezhnev. Brezhnev had sent him a letter accusing the United States of destabilizing the world with its territorial ambitions and imperialistic designs. President Reagan replied, quote, "There's not only no evidence to support such a charge; there's solid evidence that the United States, when it could have dominated the world, at no risk to itself, made no effort whatsoever to do so.
"When World War II ended, the United States had the only undamaged industrial power in the world," he wrote. "Its military was at its peak, and we alone had the ultimate weapon, the nuclear bomb, and the unquestioned ability to deliver it anywhere in the world. If we had sought world domination, who could have opposed us?"
He went on to say, "But the United States followed a different course, one unique in the history of all mankind. We used our power and wealth to rebuild the war-ravaged economies of the world, including those nations that had been our enemies," unquote.
Think of what he wrote and the power of the truth he spoke. Because of those efforts after World War II, freedom did take root in Japan, in Germany and Italy and indeed across Europe. And the liberated nations of Europe then joined with the United States to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Together we stood up to the forces of communist tyranny, and by the end of the 20th century, liberty had sped -- spread across the entire continent of Europe and beyond."
Graphic proof of freedom’s reign as told by Donald Rumsfeld:
"I was in South Korea last week. A woman I'm going to guess was 40, 45 obviously, [inaudible] Korean War 50 years ago said to me why should South Koreans go to -- Why should South Koreans go to Iraq and put their lives at risk and get wounded or killed?
I said that is a very good question. I said that I had just gotten an honors ceremony and a memorial for the Korean War and I looked on the wall and there was the name of a pal of mine from high school who had been killed the last day of the war. I said to her, I said you know, that question would have been a fair question for an American to ask 50 years ago. Why in the world should an American go all the way over to the Korean peninsula and get wounded or killed? I said look out the window. I'll tell you why. Look out there, what do you see? You see electricity, you see [energy], you see cars, you see an economic miracle. And at the demilitarized zone with a satellite shot at night you see success south of the DMZ and you see nothing but [silence] and blackness except for one pinpoint of light in Pyongyang. That's all you see from a satellite in the Korean peninsula north of the DMZ. People are starving. They've lowered the height requirement to get in the North Korean military down to 4'10" because people don't get enough nourishment. And the people going in the army in North Korea look like they're 12, 13, and 14 instead of 18, 19 and 20. It's a country that's out proliferating ballistic missile technology, threatening to sell fissile material.
And this relatively intelligent journalist who wasn't alive then obviously doesn't get it.
And also, people don't have long memories. Here's this perfectly intelligent woman who works in a free country for a free newspaper asking that question. All she had to do was look out the window and see the difference."
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