Last week we posted a piece entitled Top 10 Obama Apologies which ended with this plea:
President Barack Hussein Obama… stop apologizing for us… for America and start standing up for your Country!! We are not perfect, but we have more to be proud of than we have to apologize for. We are bracing ourselves as you leave for Russia for the next apology…
Well sure enough, in his speech in Russia Obama refuses to say that the West, primarily Ronald Reagan won the Cold War.
Walesa wrote an eloquent essay thanking president Reagan for his unwavering support.
When talking about Ronald Reagan, I have to be personal. We in Poland took him so personally. Why? Because we owe him our liberty. This can't be said often enough by people who lived under oppression for half a century, until communism fell in 1989.
Poles fought for their freedom for so many years that they hold in special esteem those who backed them in their struggle. Support was the test of friendship. President Reagan was such a friend. His policy of aiding democratic movements in Central and Eastern Europe in the dark days of the Cold War meant a lot to us. We knew he believed in a few simple principles such as human rights, democracy and civil society. He was someone who was convinced that the citizen is not for the state, but vice-versa, and that freedom is an innate right.
As I say repeatedly, we owe so much to all those who supported us. Perhaps in the early years, we didn't express enough gratitude. We were so busy introducing all the necessary economic and political reforms in our reborn country. Yet President Ronald Reagan must have realized what remarkable changes he brought to Poland, and indeed the rest of the world. And I hope he felt gratified. He should have. (Full article below)
In Solidarity - The Polish people, hungry for justice, preferred "cowboys" over Communists.
By LECH WALESA
Friday, June 11, 2004 12:01 A.M. EDT
GDANSK, Poland--When talking about Ronald Reagan, I have to be personal. We in Poland took him so personally. Why? Because we owe him our liberty. This can't be said often enough by people who lived under oppression for half a century, until communism fell in 1989.
Poles fought for their freedom for so many years that they hold in special esteem those who backed them in their struggle. Support was the test of friendship. President Reagan was such a friend. His policy of aiding democratic movements in Central and Eastern Europe in the dark days of the Cold War meant a lot to us. We knew he believed in a few simple principles such as human rights, democracy and civil society. He was someone who was convinced that the citizen is not for the state, but vice-versa, and that freedom is an innate right.
I often wondered why Ronald Reagan did this, taking the risks he did, in supporting us at Solidarity, as well as dissident movements in other countries behind the Iron Curtain, while pushing a defense buildup that pushed the Soviet economy over the brink. Let's remember that it was a time of recession in the U.S. and a time when the American public was more interested in their own domestic affairs. It took a leader with a vision to convince them that there are greater things worth fighting for. Did he seek any profit in such a policy? Though our freedom movements were in line with the foreign policy of the United States, I doubt it.
I distinguish between two kinds of politicians. There are those who view politics as a tactical game, a game in which they do not reveal any individuality, in which they lose their own face. There are, however, leaders for whom politics is a means of defending and furthering values. For them, it is a moral pursuit. They do so because the values they cherish are endangered. They're convinced that there are values worth living for, and even values worth dying for. Otherwise they would consider their life and work pointless. Only such politicians are great politicians and Ronald Reagan was one of them.
The 1980s were a curious time--a time of realization that a new age was upon us. Communism was coming to an end. It had used up its means and possibilities. The ground was set for change. But this change needed the cooperation, or unspoken understanding, of different political players. Now, from the perspective of our time, it is obvious that like the pieces of a global chain of events, Ronald Reagan, John Paul II, Margaret Thatcher and even Mikhail Gorbachev helped bring about this new age in Europe. We at Solidarity like to claim more than a little credit, too, for bringing about the end of the Cold War.
In the Europe of the 1980s, Ronald Reagan presented a vision. For us in Central and Eastern Europe, that meant freedom from the Soviets. Mr. Reagan was no ostrich who hoped that problems might just go away. He thought that problems are there to be faced. This is exactly what he did.
Every time I met President Reagan, at his private estate in California or at the Lenin shipyard here in Gdansk, I was amazed by his modesty and even temper. He didn't fit the stereotype of the world leader that he was. Privately, we were like opposite sides of a magnet: He was always composed; I was a raging tower of emotions eager to act. We were so different yet we never had a problem with understanding one another. I respected his honesty and good humor. It gave me confidence in his policies and his resolve. He supported my struggle, but what unified us, unmistakably, were our similar values and shared goals.
I have often been asked in the United States to sign the poster that many Americans consider very significant. Prepared for the first almost-free parliamentary elections in Poland in 1989, the poster shows Gary Cooper as the lonely sheriff in the American Western, "High Noon." Under the headline "At High Noon" runs the red Solidarity banner and the date--June 4, 1989--of the poll. It was a simple but effective gimmick that, at the time, was misunderstood by the Communists. They, in fact, tried to ridicule the freedom movement in Poland as an invention of the "Wild" West, especially the U.S.
But the poster had the opposite impact: Cowboys in Western clothes had become a powerful symbol for Poles. Cowboys fight for justice, fight against evil, and fight for freedom, both physical and spiritual. Solidarity trounced the Communists in that election, paving the way for a democratic government in Poland. It is always so touching when people bring this poster up to me to autograph it. They have cherished it for so many years and it has become the emblem of the battle that we all fought together.
As I say repeatedly, we owe so much to all those who supported us. Perhaps in the early years, we didn't express enough gratitude. We were so busy introducing all the necessary economic and political reforms in our reborn country. Yet President Ronald Reagan must have realized what remarkable changes he brought to Poland, and indeed the rest of the world. And I hope he felt gratified. He should have.
Mr. Walesa, winner of the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize, was president of Poland from 1990 to 1995.
A Few Comments to Obama’s remarks in Russia:
1. How unlike the spineless individual who now sits in the oval office! Obama is no statesman. He would most likely have sided with the Polish Communists because, after all, if Walesa and his movement failed, the Polish thugs in charge might have become upset with us.
It's pathetic how far we've fallen from the days of the Gipper.
VW
2.Over the last 6 months, Obama has gone on several "World Apology Tours" most of which have resulted in his belittling our great nation and our achievements as a people and often have seen him catering to the despots of the world in one fashion or another, such as bowing to a Saudi king or paling around with the pineapple head that runs Venezuela or as he has done over the last couple of days, sucking up to the KGB that runs Russia to the detriment of our own nation's defenses.
What is he campaigning for?
Does he see a not-to-distant future with a one-world government, which runs every nation through a "czar" who is accountable only to a "World President" selected from one of several possible candidates which, let's say, the UN's Security Council recommends and where the UN's General Assembly "functions" as a rubberstamp world legislative body and where the "World President" uses such thug states as North Korea and Venezuela and Cuba as "enforcers" of the "World President's" policies?
What is Obama campaigning for on all of these "World Apology Tours"?
It can't be good for the Good Ole US of A. Now can it?To me it looks like he sees the US Presidency as a mere stepping stone to a much bigger position on the world stage for himself but at the cost of America's position as the only SuperPower left in the world since the collapse of the Soviet Union 20 years ago.
What do you all think?
JohnC - New Orleans
3. Does Obama just not know history? Does he really just hate the Country he is supposed to represent? (Obviously we should have paid more attention to his connections with Rev Wright, ACORN and terrorists!) Is he completely self-absorbed with a need for constant personal attention and adulation. Or is he really as devious and scary as he sounds?
Doreen - Tampa
Posted: Knowledge Creates Power
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