President Ronald Reagan was a great man. He was well-respected, and trusted. His story is a pure American dream, going from a film actor, to become Governor of California and then to the presidency. Unlike the current executive, Reagan was almost universally beloved. His first day of taking office saw the release of U.S. hostages. His steadfast determination in the face of Soviet aggression was to be admired. The way he could charm foreign leaders was unparalleled. He was the only person in history that could aggressively build a military, without seeming militarist. And though he faced many military blunders, scandals such as Iran/Contra and a ramped up a horrific and unwise vice war, he was able to rise above those failures and leave a lasting positive legacy on this country.
And he was also one who could learn from his mistakes.
For example, on June 6th, 1982 Israel initiated Operation “Peace for Galilee” and invaded Lebanon to create a “buffer zone” between the Palestinian Liberation Organization and Syrian forces in Lebanon & Israel. The president tacitly approved of this and the U.S. supported military support to Israel in the form of arms and matériel. Lebanese Muslims believed that we were there to allow Christians to dominate Lebanon, and it was exacerbated when American missiles were lobbed from the U.S. Sixth fleet, killing innocent civilians in the mountains of Shuf. The Lebanese Muslims believed we were taking the sides of Lebanese Christians against them. To make matters worse, Iran established a military base in the region in order to help coordinate the bombing of our marines, due to our support of Iraq and Saddam Hussein in his war against Iran.
On Sunday, October 23rd 1983 at 6:22AM, a yellow Mercedes-benz truck filled with explosives smashed through the gates of the marine base and detonated 21,000 pounds of dynamite. 241 American service members were killed. At first he was defiant, stating that he would never back down, but with waning congressional support, the ramping up of the civil war and the deaths of the marines hanging heavily over his head, he decided to withdraw. Later he would recount:
“Perhaps we didn’t appreciate fully enough the depth of the hatred and the complexity of the problems that made the Middle East such a jungle. Perhaps the idea of a suicide car bomber committing mass murder to gain instant entry to Paradise was so foreign to our own values and consciousness that it did not create in us the concern for the marines’ safety that it should have. In the weeks immediately after the bombing, I believe the last thing that we should do was turn tail and leave. Yet the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics forced us to rethink our policy there. If there would be some rethinking of policy before our men die, we would be a lot better off. If that policy had changed towards more of a neutral position and neutrality, those 241 marines would be alive today.”
So despite Reagan’s committed policies of “peace through strength”, he could see that there was a time to consider that the United States should remain neutral. If he were alive today, and the question of Syria came up, would he have sided with Barack Obama, or Rand Paul?
Consider that Senator Rand Paul is a very libertarian-leaning Senator who was in many ways responsible for stopping the bombing of Syria by President Barack Obama. If Reagan were alive today, he would probably have agreed with Senator Paul and his policies regarding the irrationality of getting involved in other nation’s civil wars, due to his experience in Lebanon.
Despite many differences between conservatives and libertarians, there are many similarities and areas of overlap. Reagan saw this, and although he did not govern as full-blown libertarian, his instincts were there. If Reagan were alive today, he would definitely be a Tea Partier, and he would absolutely be an ally of Senator Rand Paul and the rising libertarian movement. Even if some libertarians would reject Reagan… he’d probably be too polite to say anything harsh back. He was just too much of a charmer.
