John Nichols: Sarah Palin Should Listen to Reagan on National Defense
Ronald Reagan made the point, in his first inaugural address as president, that it was inappropriate to presume that military might alone made a country great--or secure.
"Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women," Reagan declared in 1981. "It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have."
Reagan believed in a strong national defense.
But the 40th president sought to express the traditional Republican value that said the point of a strong defense was to defend -- not to offend....
For those who followed Reagan's career, that may sound like a strange statement....
But no stranger than former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's surreal statement about President Obama's observation that the United States is a military superpower "whether we like it or not."...
The president was making a case for the United States using its power--perhaps more aggressively than some liberals and anti-interventionist conservatives would prefer.
"It is a vital national security interest of the United States to reduce these conflicts because whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way or another we get pulled into them," said the president. "And that ends up costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure."
In that, Obama sounded quite a bit like Ronald Reagan -- and Dwight Eisenhower and a host of other Republicans presidents, secretaries of state and senators....
Reagan's record was never that of a pacifist or peacemaker. Too frequently, it was the opposite.
But Reagan was a rational being. He knew Americans did not want a "Dr. Strangelove" future, and he recognized there were political pitfalls for presidents who seemed to want power merely for the sake of power, and especially for those who did not understand the primary point of claiming superpower status was to be able to negotiate--not fight--with other superpowers.
Indeed, historian Lawrence S. Wittner argues, well and wisely, that: " "Although Reagan was more amenable to disarmament than many persons realized, he and other US officials made nuclear disarmament a top priority in response to pressure from antinuclear groups and public opinion. This pressure was both direct and, at times, indirect, as when Congress, anxious NATO allies, and Gorbachev--all influenced by the antinuclear movement-- threw their weight behind a nuclear disarmament agreement."
Wittner's argument, expressed in his fine book, The Struggle Against the Bomb is a convincing one....