Charlie Wilson's War

Man, I should get sick more often. I have been flippin' around the blogs today and I keep running up on all this really cool stuff that really just gets me all worked up. Besides, when I get stuck in bed, I get way to serious about stuff. (Must be the drugs - it's hard to be me when I feel like I've been hit by a bus.)

Anyway, enough about my pathetic, miserable existence today.

I was looking around at some movie reviews (I get bored easily) and I stumbled on this from a piece by Michael Johns about "Charlie Wilson's War". It's a really long piece, but it is really well written and spelled out the Reagan Doctrine perfectly (Ronald Reagan was just a brilliant guy). Imagine my surprise when I read this:

Under this background, every vote on aid to UNITA, the contras, and other resistance movements was a huge political ordeal, with the vast majority of Congressional Democrats seeking to defeat the measures. Sometimes they won. But more often, because of extraordinary efforts made by Reagan to verbalize the importance of the policy, and the leadership of many Congressional Republicans who had the vision to fight for it, they lost.

While Wilson was one, many other Congressional names, most Republicans, deserve a rightful place as part of the Reagan army who fought for this critical support, including some who did so despite a lack of solid political support for it in their own districts: Congressmen Dan Burton (R-IN), Jim Courter (R-NJ), Newt Gingrich (R-GA), Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Jack Kemp (R-NY), Don Ritter (R-PA), E. Clay Shaw (R-FL), Chris Smith (R-NJ), Bob Walker (R-PA), Senators Steve Symms (R-ID), Don Nickles (R-OK), Malcolm Wallop (R-WY), and dozens of others. Sadly, history has not yet properly recorded the role of these brave elected U.S. leaders, many of whom sacrificed political popularity to fight these battles and who articulated the case for this important doctrine that ultimately ended the Soviet empire. (emphasis added)

Courage in the face of political adversity? "Brave elected leaders"? Now there's a couple really novel ideas.

Thankfully we still have a few in the midst of these spineless flacks for the MoveOn/Code Pink crowd. (The Nancy Pelosi crew just nauseates me.)

Some of these genuine leaders are still around to carry on the Reagan legacy. There's a few left to continue the fight, to lead the conservative movement. There are some like Mike Pence (R-IN) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ), among others, who are picking up that mantle and we are the better for it. The Conservative Movement lives.

If we can ever start acting like real GOPers again, we'll win. If we continue offing ourselves in these monumentally stupid circular firing squads ... (I can just hear the Gipper, "well, there you go again ...")

I have been thinking alot about the former President today, with the passing of my other conservative hero, William F. Buckley, Jr. (I am really gonna miss him, almost as much as I miss President Reagan). I know Ronnie was right. America's best days are still in front of her, if we are willing to work at it.

America is still the "shining city on a hill" and the last best hope for the free world.

We have these guys to thank for it.


See the whole story here:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/michaeljohns/blog/2008/02/20/Charlie-Wilsons-War-Was-Really-Americas-War