Reagan Revolution Through President Obama

The collapse of the Soviet Union was a major turning point in world history. The primary causes were political and economic and they were the result of the culture of war. “The Soviet Union was first reformed, then transformed, and then disintegrated all within the space of six-and-a-half years. It had ceased to be a communist system in any meaningful sense from the time of the state-wide contested elections of the spring of 1989. Inside the Communist Party, vigorous public debate had replaced 'democratic centralism'. Moreover, the basic principle of the party's 'leading role' within the political system and society was being challenged from all sides as new political organizations sprang up. In March 1990 the Communist Party's monopoly of power was removed from the Soviet Constitution, formal recognition of what had been the reality on the ground for the past year.” (Brown, 2011). “With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, several small brutal wars emerged as people fought for control of their now-independent nations. With the Soviet Union no longer serving as watchful overlord, several nationalist movements clashed in civil wars throughout central and eastern Europe.” (Schultz, p. 494). The change in foreign policy for western countries, especially America was massive. The collapse of the USSR was probably the biggest event in the second half of the 20th century and political change from it was inevitable. Its impact on western countries foreign policy should not be underestimated as its affects are seen today in places such as Iraq with the United States attempts to limit Nuclear weapons to reduce world tension. “With the conclusion of the Cold War, the world became a more open, accessible place, and this development would be a key part of the world economy that would shape the 1990s.” (Schultz, p. 496).

September 11, 2001 was another major turning point in history. September 11, 2011 started out as a normal day, people waking up, going to work, dropping children off at daycares, catching a train and kissing your loved one goodbye not knowing it would be for the last time. Four U.S. airplanes were hijacked by terrorist, thousands of people were killed and our lives were changed forever. The American people were in shock, the attack came from a basically unknown group. We were glued to our televisions, hoping against all hope that people survived the attacks. We pulled together and made a determined effort to catch those that had performed this devastation on American soil. We asked why this happened and few found solace in the answers. Osama bin Laden blamed the United States for the Middle East not following its historical and godly ways. He also did not like the fact that after the 1st Gulf War the U.S. remained in the Middle East. Osama bin Laden did not like the U.S. relationship and support of Israel. “In a 1998 religious statement, called, in Islam, a fatwa, bin Laden formally objected to American foreign policy toward Israel and to the continued American military presence in Saudi Arabia. Seeing these as threats to the creation of the pure Islamic Middle East he envisioned, bin Laden also urged the use of violence against the United States until his demands were met.” (Schultz, p. 517).

The AIDS virus does not discriminate, it is contagious, and it is deadly. Little was known about AIDS in the United States until 1981. AIDS was first thought to be a disease specific to homosexuals, religious fanatics jumped on the bandwagon saying the disease was God’s judgment of homosexuals. “Reagan ordered his surgeon general to refrain from discussing the AIDS crisis, dismissing it as only a gay disease.” (Schultz, p 489). The spread of AIDS went beyond the homosexual community rapidly due to the fact that heterosexual people had unsafe sex, drug users were sharing blood-tainted IV needles and blood banks were not testing donated blood for the HIV virus.

President Reagan had an idea about how the world should be run; he was an advocate of limiting government involvement in business. He deregulated Big Business. He removed the restrictions put in place that kept companies from cheating. He removed economic oversight. “He said that it was un-American in this capitalist society that such oversight restrictions should exist. To him, these concepts flew in the face of what we call freedom. He wanted Big Business to have the freedom to do what it will and believed that in doing so, the companies would check themselves.” (Reagan Deregulation, 2008) This was the beginning of the downfall of banks and mortgage companies. People with bad credit and no money for down payments were allowed to borrow money to buy homes and ended up defaulting on the mortgage loans. We now have many homes sitting empty because banks have repossessed them and mortgages are upside down because the housing market tanked and houses aren’t worth what is owed on them. In the 1960s, the transportation deregulation movement flowered during Jimmy Carter’s administration, and reached astonishing heights under Ronald Reagan’s. Reformers were going to free the engines of capitalism from the yoke of unnecessary regulation. Deregulation has been a disaster, playing out in motion so slow it’s easy to ignore. We now pay higher prices for tickets, we are required to pay more for luggage and we get fewer and fewer freebies on flights we are able to take.

The shock and horror of what happened on 9/11 in the United States was evident in the response we received from around the world. “President Gen. Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, one of three countries then recognizing the Taliban's government (Sept. 11), condemned the attacks and called for cooperation to combat the "modern-day evil" of terrorism.” United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said "There can be no doubt that these attacks are deliberate acts of terrorism, carefully planned and coordinated and as such I condemn them utterly. Terrorism must be fought resolutely wherever it appears." Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said "I send my condolences, and the condolences of the Palestinian people to American President Bush and his government and to the American people for this terrible act," Arafat told reporters in Gaza. "We completely condemn this serious operation. . . . We were completely shocked . . . It's unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable," says a visibly upset Arafat. Sheik Ahmed Yassin, whose Islamic militant Hamas group has carried out a series of suicide bombings in Israel, said he was not interested in exporting such attacks to the United States. "We are not ready to move our struggle outside the occupied Palestinian land. We are not prepared to open international fronts, however much we criticize the unfair American position," Yassin told reporters in Gaza City.” (In Their Own Words). Initially the war in Afghanistan was to find Osama bin Laden and get rid of al Qaeda. The U.S. and coalition troops did not find bin Laden nor members of al Qaeda in Afghanistan; they believed bin Laden had fled to Pakistan. The invasion of Iraq was driven by claims from the U.S. intelligence community that Iraq had collaborated with al Qaeda and was amassing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). The U.S. military operation in Iraq was at first successful because the longtime Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was removed from power, and a new, more democratic government was slowly installed. The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq endured much international criticism. When the war began, the American public was torn, but generally favorable, about the idea. This support faded dramatically in the face of continuing insurgency and the rising U.S. death toll in Iraq as well as the not finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. President Bush “used the war on terror to reorganize the U.S. intelligence community” by creating the Department of Homeland Security. The war gave Bush the political capital to push for greater intrusions into privacy. In an effort to root out terrorism, the USA Patriot Act allowed the federal government to monitor libraries, bookstores, banks, and even people’s homes, although notable abuses of these policies have yet to emerge.” (Schultz, p. 518).

References

Brown, Professor Archie, (2011); Reform, Coup and Collapse: The End of the Soviet State; retrieved on September 8, 2013 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/coldwar/soviet_end_01.shtml

In Their Own Words; retrieved on September 8, 2013 from http://september11news.com/InternationalReaction.htm
Reagan, Deregulation, and the Fruit It Now Bears (2008); retrieved on September 8, 2013 from http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x384561

Schultz, K.M. (2012) Hist: Volume II (2nd ed.). (Custom) Boston, MA; Wadsworth Cengage Learning.