June 12, 2007
FORTUNATELY, WE DON'T ELECT REALISTS:
Reagan's famous line nearly clipped from Berlin speech (Robert Stacy McCain, 6/11/07, THE WASHINGTON TIMES)
[T]he speech's most famous phrase nearly didn't make it into the final draft.[Peter] Robinson, then a 31-year-old in his first full-time job, had been inspired by an earlier visit to West Berlin. There, he met with a group of residents, including Ingeborg Elz, who spoke bitterly of Mr. Gorbachev's promises of "glasnost," or openness, and "perestroika," or reform.
"If this man Gorbachev is serious with his talk of glasnost and perestroika, he can prove it," Mrs. Elz told Mr. Robinson. "He can get rid of this wall."
As he recalled in his 2003 book, "How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life," Mr. Robinson decided to include that demand in the Berlin speech Mr. Reagan was due to deliver in June. The president liked the idea. The State Department and the NSC, however, disapproved.
Among those who urged Mr. Robinson to omit "tear down this wall" from the speech were Secretary of State George Schultz, White House Chief of Staff Howard Baker, and Colin L. Powell, who was deputy national security adviser at the time.
Realists prefer the security of walls to the more onerous chore of dealing with free peoples. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 12, 2007 4:05 PM
Yes, but people with common sense understand the difference between walls that keep people out and ones that keep them in.
Posted by: PapayaSF at June 12, 2007 9:51 PMNo, people with common sense realize that there's no difference and laugh at the fools who get themselves trapped behind their own wall. Realists, being Rational, are notoriously devoid of common sense.
Posted by: oj at June 12, 2007 10:13 PMNo, people with common sense understand the difference between the Berlin Wall (running right through a major city) and a fence build in the Arizona desert to reduce illegal immigration. The fence in the desert has no impact on American citizens as they wouldn't be entering/exiting the country in this manner. The border fence = Berlin Wall is one of the more ridiculous analogies being used in the immigration debate.
Posted by: AWW at June 12, 2007 10:47 PM"The border fence = Berlin Wall is one of the more ridiculous analogies being used in the immigration debate."
The idea of a border fence being effective is even more ridiculous. You're moving from a biathlon to a triathlon, but the people who want to be here will find a way.
Posted by: John at June 13, 2007 7:23 AMWater stopped the Puritans, Cubans, Haitians and Vietnamese didn't it?
Posted by: oj at June 13, 2007 9:51 AMThe East Germans also had extensive fencing to try to keep people from crossing from the rest of the non-Berlin border into West Germany. That is a more direct comparison.
Did it work? Sorta but the mine fields, machine guns and dogs were a tad more effective. Not to mention the 20% of the population that were Stasi informants.
Is that the border you want AWW? Because without the mine fields, machine guns and dogs, the fence will not stop immigration.
Posted by: Bob at June 13, 2007 10:18 AMIf it had worked there'd still be an East Germany.
Posted by: oj at June 13, 2007 12:29 PM