Deja Nukes

A news item the other day caught my eye. It was about President Obama’s decision to deal with North Korea in case the regime gets crazy enough and decides to launch an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile in our direction. Here’s how Politico reported the story:

“The United States is preparing a ‘shield’ to protect itself from ‘relatively low-level’ threats emanating from North Korea as the regime continues its saber-rattling by threatening to conduct its second nuclear test of the year.”

Mr. Obama told Charlie Rose (on CBS) that, "One of the things that we have been doing is spending a lot more time positioning our missile defense systems, so that even as we try to resolve the underlying problem of nuclear development inside of North Korea, we're also setting up a shield that can at least block the relatively low-level threats that they're posing right now.

A shield … to block nuclear missiles from hitting us? Talk about déjà vu all over again. When Ronald Reagan proposed a shield to block Soviet missiles liberals had a field day with that loony idea? Reagan: what a doofus!

Turns out I wasn’t the only one to notice that liberals who hyperventilated over Reagan’s plan, which they mockingly dubbed “Star Wars,” didn’t break a sweat over the Obama shield. Here’s part of an editorial in Investors Business Daily:

“Moreover, liberals tried to strangle the very concept of missile defense at birth. When President Ronald Reagan in 1983 announced his Strategic Defense Initiative, Sen. Ted Kennedy accused the ex-movie star of basing ‘national policy on fond memories of radio serials, dreams of the Old West, and the thrilling days of yesteryear.’ Reagan’s ‘Star Wars’ was ‘the preposterous notion of a Lone Ranger in the sky, firing silver laser bullets and shooting missiles out of the hands of Soviet outlaws,’ Kennedy declared.”

Yes, Reagan’s plan was considerably more ambitious than the mini shield President Obama is promising. And that made Ronald Reagan, in the liberal worldview anyway, a provocateur, and thus, a very dangerous man. Why did he have to start trouble by dubbing the old Soviet Union an “Evil Empire”? Didn’t that make him an existential threat to the whole planet?

But a shield to protect us from North Korean ICBMs is a great idea – largely because it’s Mr. Obama’s idea. After all – as every fair-minded person knows – President Obama, unlike Ronald Reagan (or any other conservative), is sensible and reasonable. Besides, Mr. Obama has such a great track record when it comes to dealing with our adversaries, right?

I’m just relieved that Donald Trump didn’t come up with this shield thing. He makes liberals crazy enough as is.

 

Comment by clicking here.