Of all the comments Governor Palin has said so far in the interview with Charlie Giboson, the most shocking to me is the followng: "We cannot repeat the Cold War. We are thankful that, under Reagan,we won the Cold War, without a shot fired, also. We've learned lessons from that in our relationship with Russia, previously the Soviet Union. We will not repeat a Cold War. We must have good relationship with our allies, pressuring, also, helping us to remind Russia that it's in their benefit, also, a mutually beneficial relationship for us all to be getting along."
Where to begin? It's on the fold.
- Shots were fired in the Cold War. She needs to go to Washington and look at the Vietnam Memorial. I recall shots being fire in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Greece, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chile, Korea, Germany, well, I could go on...perhaps, I should list countries where shots were not fired.
- Reagan didn't win the cold war. Truman started the endeavor and it was followed by every President until 1989 when the wall fell, or at least that is my recollection. I remember George Kennan's the "Long Telegram" outlined "containment".
- Interestingly, Tom Friedman's new book postulates, based on interviews with Russian economists at the time, that the drop in oil prices in the early 1980's is what caused the collapse of the USSR.
- I was particularly drawn to her line "..Russia, previously the Soviet Union..." She seems to point this out proudly as if she just learned it and needed to educate the rest of us. Someone needs to tell her Russia still exists and is diffferent than the Soviet Union.
- A President or a Vice President should really know what the Cold War was since so long as oil prices remain at $100 a barrell or more we are looking at the distinct possibility of it becoming active. I recall reading today that Venezuela and Russia are considering militry cooperation of some sort. Only time will tell what that is, but it looks to me like the Monroe Doctrine is being tested.