On Sunday, Townhall posted an article suggesting how President Biden could end the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The article suggested following some of the example set by President Reagan.
The article reports:
President Reagan famously ramped up military spending. He increased the defense budget by over 40 percent, and that included the creation of his space program called SDI. The media mocked it and nicknamed it the Star Wars program and relentlessly attempted to brand Reagan as a dunce who was a former actor who knew nothing about foreign policy. We know in hindsight that the Soviets were enraged that the U.S. could own space and potentially shoot their weapons right out of the sky with the SDI program. In response, the Soviets ramped up their spending on similar programs.
But, Soviet money didn’t grow on trees.
A lot of the money grew, so to speak, in the wheat fields of Russia. Wheat has long been in the top three biggest Soviet exports and President Reagan unleashed our farmers to produce grain.
We need to end the restrictions on American energy production.
The article continues:
Another aspect of Reagan’s Cold War strategy was taking the reins off of American oil producers and ramping up our oil production. It not only gave us a great advantage to produce our own energy here, it also dramatically lowered the price of oil on the world market. Oil was and still is Russia’s top export.
In addition to domestic production, Reagan worked behind the scenes to encourage Middle Eastern oil producers to increase the supply on the world market. The Soviets took a HUGE hit in the pocketbook when their oil suddenly became worth a fraction of what it was when Jimmy Carter was president.
President Reagan also waged a PR war against the Soviets.
The most famous moment was Reagan’s speech at the Brandenburg gate when he told the Soviets to tear down the wall that was separating the free people in Western Europe from those imprisoned in the oppressive communist system on the other side of the wall and razor wire.
Reagan also sent funding and arms to freedom movements around the world that were resisting the Soviet Communist takeover of countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
And it worked. The USSR is on the ash heap of history.
If we do not learn the lesson of President Reagan vs the Soviet Union, America will wind up on the ash heap of history. Unfortunately, the Biden administration is racing toward that heap.
