TODAY IS THE ANNIVERSARY OF PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN’S SPEECH TO THE NATION – THE SPACESHIP CHALLENGER DISASTER – JANUARY 28, 1986
From an address to the nation by President Ronald Reagan on Sept. 5, 1983, after Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was shot down by a Soviet Su-15 interceptor:
I’m coming before you tonight about the Korean airline massacre, the attack by the Soviet Union against 269 innocent men, women, and children aboard an unarmed Korean passenger plane. This crime against humanity must never be forgotten, here or throughout the world.
. . . And make no mistake about it, this attack was not just against ourselves or the Republic of Korea. This was the Soviet Union against the world and the moral precepts which guide human relations among people everywhere. It was an act of barbarism, born of a society which wantonly disregards individual rights and the value of human life and seeks constantly to expand and dominate other nations.
They deny the deed, but in their conflicting and misleading protestations, the Soviets reveal that, yes, shooting down a plane—even one with hundreds of innocent men, women, children, and babies—is a part of their normal procedure if that plane is in what they claim as their airspace. They owe the world an apology and an offer to join the rest of the world in working out a system to protect against this ever happening again.
. . . We know it will be hard to make a nation that rules its own people through force to cease using force against the rest of the world. But we must try. This is not a role we sought. We preach no manifest destiny. But like Americans who began this country and brought forth this last, best hope of mankind, history has asked much of the Americans of our own time. Much we have already given; much more we must be prepared to give.
Let us have faith, in Abraham Lincoln’s words, “that right makes might, and in that faith let us, to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it.” If we do, if we stand together and move forward with courage, then history will record that some good did come from this monstrous wrong that we will carry with us and remember for the rest of our lives.
Today, all over America, families and friends are reuniting to renew ties, enjoy each other’s company, and celebrate our Nation’s birthday. It is a day when liberty and laughter go hand-in-hand—when we can acknowledge that, oh yes, we have our faults, and lots of problems, too, but we’re happy and proud because we’re free, and we know the best of America is yet to be. . . .
Back in 1776, John Adams wrote his wife Abigail that the anniversary of our independence should be observed with great fanfare: “. . . with pomp and parades . . . shows and games . . . and sports and guns and bells . . . with bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, and from this time forevermore.”
Well, Mr. Adams, rest assured that what you wanted is being done. Your traditions are now ours, and we guard them like national treasures. And you know why. When we unfurl our flags, strike up the bands, and light up the skies each July 4th, we celebrate the most exciting, ongoing adventure in human freedom the world has ever known.
What makes our revolution unique and so exciting . . . is that it changed the very concept of government. Here was a new nation telling the world that it was conceived in liberty; that all men are created equal with God-given rights, and that power ultimately resides in “We the people.”
We sometimes forget this great truth, and we never should, because putting people first has always been America’s secret weapon. It’s the way we’ve kept the spirit of our revolution alive—a spirit that drives us to dream and dare, and take great risks for a greater good. It’s the spirit of Fulton and Ford, the Wright brothers and Lindbergh, and of all our astronauts. It’s the spirit of Joe Louis, Babe Ruth, and a million others who may have been born poor, but who would not be denied their day in the Sun.
Well, I’m convinced that we’re getting that spirit back. The Nation is pulling together. We’re looking to the future with new hope and confidence—and we know we can make America great again by putting the destiny of this Nation back in the hands of the people. And why shouldn’t we? Because, after all, we are Americans.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Iran-Contra was a real scandal and an embarrassment to the U.S. government. In the early 1980s the Reagan White House was worried about the fate of a handful of American hostages being held by Hezbollah, which had snatched each off the streets of Beirut. The president was especially worried about CIA station chief William Buckley, who was being tortured.
Suddenly in 1985 word reached the administration of a possible opening, a group of so-called Iranian moderates who might be willing to pressure Hezbollah for the hostages’ release. Meetings were authorized. It turned out the Iranian group wanted something in return: the U.S. to permit Israel to sell them antitank missiles to use against Iraq. The U.S. would replenish the Israeli stock.
(Iran-Contra history continues at end of article)
The Benghazi investigation should go forward but with knowledge that it will face heavy partisan and media pushback.
Democrats will argue—they already are—that with the country in crisis the attention of Congress should be turned to addressing the issue that weighs most on the public mind: a bad economy with the very top flourishing while the middle is stuck, stressed and sinking.
That will not be a wholly effective line for Democrats. Their and the president’s inability to work legislatively with Republicans the past 5½ years has left the American people understanding that nothing’s going to get done in the immediate future anyway. Benghazi isn’t distracting Congress because they’re not doing anything.
The president, detached and defeatist when he isn’t in your face and triumphalist, let David Remnick, in the New Yorker interview people keep going back to as the second term’s Rosetta stone, know that he himself does not expect any major legislation, with the possible exception of immigration, to get done.
The more effective pushback will come from Big Media. Network leaders, producers and newspaper editors did not go after the story when the first serious questions began to bubble up. Afterward they dismissed the questions as old news. Now they are defensive and resentful. They are not going to help Republican investigators do the job they themselves should have done. (If they’d done it there might be no need for another investigation, because people might feel satisfied they know the essential facts.) Any proof of a Democratic coverup will have the appearance of indicting the media, too.
Secretary of State George Shultz testifying at a Senate Iran-Contra hearing in 1987. Associated Press (more…)
From the right, Brent Bozell, guest speaker and Bro and Dee Park
From the left: Jim Duncan, Chairman, Chatham GOP and Don Parson
ON the left: Colonel (Ret) Jay Stobbs, US Army and North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Paul Newby
Brig. General (Ret) Norman Gaddis, USAF, former Vietnam POW
From the left: Donna Kelly, Jeanna Bock, Brian Bock, Chairman, Chatham County Commissioners and Bret Kelly
Pam Stewart, Chatham County Commissioner and her husband, Keith Stewart
Linda and Matt Arnold, Chairman, NC Republican 4th District
From the left: Cathy Wright, and Milada and Joe Williamson
Brent Bozell, Founder and President, Media Research Center and Nancy Clark, Founder, Conservative Women’s Forum
From the left: Donna Kelly and Macon Newby, wife of State Supreme Court Justice Paul Newby
From the left: Gladys Kofalt, Dr. Terry Kane, Milada Williamson and General (Ret) John Moellering US Army
From the left: Linda Arnold, David Carter and Mary Lopez Carter, candidate for NC State Senate
From the left: Zan Bunn, President, North Carolina Federation of Republican Women and Nancy Clark, Conservative Women’s Forum
Dr. John Wright and his wife, Cathy
From the left: Peter and Suzanne Morris and NC State Supreme Court Justice Paul Newby
From the left: Donald and Katharine Carek and Brian Bock, Chairman, Chatham County Commissioners
From the left: Brenda Downing and Lee Green, Vice Chair, Durham County GOP
From the left: Betsy Duncan and Morrie Ross
Karla Moellering and Bill Meeham
from the left: Dr. John Wright, Dr. Terry Kane, Col (Ret) Jay Stobbs and Jim Kofalt
General (Ret) Norman Gaddis USAF and Nancy Clark, Conservative Women’s Forum
Brent Bozell and Sandra Henson
America is experiencing a generational shift away from military intervention. Those of us in our 50s and 60s witnessed the American defeat in Vietnam and the subsequent U.S. retreat from the world, followed by the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan that same year, and the imposition of martial law in Poland from 1981-83.
President Ronald Reagan delivers his ‘tear down this wall’ speech at the Brandenburg Gate near the Berlin Wall, June 12, 1987. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
We also witnessed the U.S. military revival under President Ronald Reagan, his willingness to confront the Soviet Union, and the U.S.S.R.’s subsequent collapse and an American victory in the Cold War. We saw the successful use of U.S. military power in Iraq in 1990-91 and in Kosovo and Serbia in 1994-99, and contrasted that with the genocidal results of inaction in Rwanda. America’s use of war to shape the world seems to many of us both necessary and proper.
Now consider how many Americans in their 20s, 30s and 40s view the world. The Cold War to them was unnecessary—a tense and massively expensive arms race for little if any gain. The minor triumphs of the 1990s to them seem unimportant and related somehow to what is uppermost in their minds: the long and painful failures in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Al Qaeda killed Americans on 9/11, so killing Osama bin Laden was justified, but the U.S. did not have to wage wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to do that. China and Russia suppress democratic reforms and bully their neighbors, but how will military force help anything? (more…)
Craig Shirley, president of Shirley and Banister Public Affairs, is author of “Reagan’s Revolution” (Thomas Nelson, 2010), “Rendezvous with Destiny” (Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2011), and “December 1941” (Thomas Nelson, 2011).
THE REMARKABLE RONALD REAGAN:
Shortly after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a children’s book arrived at Van Duyn Elementary School in Syracuse, N.Y., about the childhood of the recently slain president.
Even to the unsophisticated third-grade mind, there seemed something amiss in the book’s story and art. It depicted a teenaged JFK, disheveled, shirttail hanging out with a piece of toast in his hand getting into a public school bus late that delivered him to a public school.
The book then later showed the young JFK in a messy bedroom, with clothes falling out of dresser drawers as he argued with his best friend, an equally young Mexican boy.
In hindsight, the book was more than ludicrous. Kennedy probably never set foot in a public school in his life, on a school bus in his life and the first time he encountered anybody of Hispanic origins may have been someone tending his father’s estate. He himself admitted the Great Depression never touched him, and he never understood its deprivations.
The Kennedy book for children was all a prevarication, though in JFK’s defense, his heroic stewardship of a PT boat in the South Pacific in World War II certainly qualified as public transportation.
There is the dubiousness of young George Washington and the cherry tree and then there is the farcical.
Of course, one cringes at the idea of a children’s book depicting the life and times of Bill Clinton. It might give new meaning to the phrase “child pornography.” History written for children can be dangerous and could earn a “PG” or even “R” rating.
All presidents are subjected to some sort of mythology or revisionism. To wit, the baseless charge that a union of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings produced children. DNA testing only shows her heirs to have Jefferson male DNA and that could have come from any number of Jefferson men who frequented Monticello.
We all know about the young Lincoln doing long arithmetic with a piece of coal on a shovel. Whether this is true, it is certainly more enjoyable and harmless than reading that his father quite probably often beat the young Abe.
Now comes a delightful children’s book titled “The Remarkable Ronald Reagan,” by Susan Allen, former first lady of Virginia, published by Regnery Kids.
The nice thing is that it is all true. Nothing had to be made up because he really did live a heroic and “remarkable” life, but it does not overlook his setbacks, as in losing the nomination to Gerald Ford in 1976.
The book, written for third- and fourth-graders, breaks no new ground and yet it is groundbreaking in that a modern conservative is being presented as a positive role model to children. The liberal educational establishment has done a good job eviscerating any of the goodness of American conservatism from the history books.
There was a reason Reagan was so popular with young Americans. The focus of his message was always about the future, freedom and opportunity. Plus, he constantly challenged the status quo, and anyone with children knows they live to challenge authority. (more…)
Citizens Commission on Benghazi
September 16, 2013 Heritage Foundation
Admiral James “Ace” Lyons (Ret) giving the 30-year history of political correctness that led up to the tragedy of Benghazi
Uploaded on Sep 25, 2013Retired Admiral James “Ace” Lyons is a former four star admiral, Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and the Father of the Navy Seal Red Cell Program. His other commands include U.S. Second Fleet, NATO Striking Fleet, as well as Seventh Fleet Logistic Force plus several ship commands. As the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations from 1983 to 1985, he was principal advisor on all Joint Chiefs of Staff matters. He also served as Senior U.S. Military Representative to the United Nations. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and has received post-graduate degrees from the U.S. Naval War College and the U.S. National Defense University.
CONFERENCE :
Colonel Dick Brauer, Jr. USAF (Ret) , Clare Lopez, former CIA officer,
General Paul Vallely (Ret), Representative Frank Wolf,
Christopher Farrell, former military intelligence officer specializing in counterintelligence and human intelligence
General Thomas McInerney (Ret), Admiral James Lyons (Ret)
Lt. Colonel Ken Benway U.S. Army Special Forces (Ret)