OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER

When President Reagan gave his famous "Evil Empire" speech on March 8, 1983 I was still a Democrat but quickly converting to being a conservative. By March of 1983 Reagan had already accomplished a lot. His tough talk had been responsible for the Iranians releasing our embassy hostages on his inauguration day. He had also been shot and nearly died. Like Trump God spared him for that time in history. He engineered the destruction of the Soviet Union, fired all of the striking air traffic controllers in the country after they ignored his warning to return to work. By March of 1983 the horrible recession of the late 1970's and early 1980's was over. We were hopeful for the future again after the morass of the Watergate scandal, the fall of Vietnam and the disastrous incompetence of Jimmy Carter who I am ashamed to admit that I voted for not once but twice. 

 On election night 1980 I was suffering from RDS or Reagan Derangement Syndrome. As a Democrat I believed the lefts lies about Reagan. You know all the ones that we have heard a million times. That he was a racist, insensitive to the plight of the poor and homeless. He was a cowboy that was going to get us into World War III. The feeling in the country was similar to what the majority of American's are feeling today because of Trump's leadership but I have to say at this point Trump is making Reagan look like a rookie. I consider Reagan, however; to be one of our top five greatest presidents. By Reagan's reelection campaign of 1984 I was solidly on the Reagan bandwagon.

 Reagan gave his "Evil Empire" speech before a religious group called the National Association of Evangelicals. On that day Reagan was informing the world, and the Soviet Union that America was no longer satisfied with containing them. From that day forward our goal was not to contain the Soviet Union but to put them out of business. He would do this by building up our military. At the time of the Cuban missile crisis America had a 16 to 1 superiority over the Soviets in ICBM's thanks to president Eisenhower's "New Look" or "Massive Retaliation" strategy. This is the biggest reason why the Soviets ultimately backed down to Kennedy and removed their intermediate range missiles from Cuba. The Soviet Union was so humiliated by the Cuban Missile Crisis that they were determined to have parity with America by the end of the 1960's.

 When I arrived at NORAD in the summer of 1971 the Soviets had exceeded America in ICBM's but that didn't matter because of American technology. We invented MIRV technology or Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicles which gave us the ability to place multiple warheads on a single rocket. Over time we also developed pinpoint accuracy. At NORAD I soon came to realize we were ahead of the Soviets but we could not protect our people from a nuclear attack. The Kennedy Administration came up with M.A.D. or "Mutual Assured Destruction". They believed that the greatest deterrent to a nuclear war was that no enemy would have the nerve to start a nuclear war if they knew that they would also be destroyed. This strategy has worked but it doesn't take into account an accidental launch or a rogue state like Iran that has a death wish having nuclear weapons. 

 Ronald Reagan came to realize what I had learned when he visited NORAD in 1977. Reagan was horrified as I was that we had no air defense that could knock down a Soviet nuclear attack. Both the US and the Soviet Union had the TRIAD system which was made up of a bomber force, Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles and Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles. We had the capability of shooting down two thirds of the Russian bomber force but the remaining third was enough to destroy us. There was no defense against ICBM's and SLBM's. Reagan, like Trump was a visionary. This was the origins of his idea for the Strategic Defense Initiative or "Star Wars" as it was derisively called by the left. Yet SDI would ultimately help bring down the Soviet Union. SDI technology is behind the Patriot missile system that was successfully used in the first Gulf War to shoot down Iraqi Scuds and the "Iron Dome" that has successfully protected Israel for so many years. President Trump wants to build an Iron Dome missile defense for America.

The tunnel leading to the NORAD complex

Me checking a line badge at the blast doors

By building our military and employing superior technology Reagan was forcing the Soviet Union to make a hard choice. They could have a strong military or they could feed their people but they could not do both. The Soviet system had never adequately provided for their people because a Communist system cannot generate wealth. America and the Western countries had subsidized the Soviet Union for years with foreign aid and wheat sales. Reagan's plan was to cut off this help. The Soviets would be on their own.

The Soviet Union knew that Reagan, like Trump, was not someone to be trifled with. They learned this when Reagan fired the air traffic controllers. This immediately got their attention. The Soviet Union knew they had to change in order to survive but the first three Soviet rulers, starting with Leonid Brezhnev died in quick succession. Reagan had no one to negotiate with. By the time Mikhail Gorbachev became the General Secretary of The Communist Party in 1985 the Soviet Union was on it's death bed and would eventually collapse in 1991. Not before Reagan was able to negotiate the reduction of both of our country's nuclear forces.

Trump was trying to do the same thing to Iran that Reagan did to the Soviet Union in his first term and his plan was working. Had Biden continued Trump's policies Iran would probably have been overthrown by a popular uprising of the Iranian people just as the Soviet Union was overthrown. The Obama and Biden administrations enabled the Iranians with billions of dollars and by allowing them to sell their oil on world markets. Iran was able to finance terrorism across the Middle East which has cost many American and Israeli lives. If Trump had taken office in 2021 the October 7th attack on Israel wouldn't have happened. They wouldn't have had the money to finance a war against Israel through their proxy terrorist groups..

One lesson that I learned early from Reagan is that when the enemy is shouting and complaining the loudest you know that you are hurting them. Or as they say in the Air Force you get the heaviest flak when you are over the target. The Communists and Communist sympathizers which were most of the Democrat party had a hissy fit when Reagan called the Soviets the evil empire. They just knew that he was going to start a war. On the eve of the 1984 election in which I gladly cast my first vote for Reagan they produced a made for television movie called The Day After which depicted what a nuclear war would be like. I thought the movie was ridiculous. It was a blatant attempt to scare voters away from voting for Reagan. Not only were the Communists in this country riled up over Reagan's Evil Empire speech but the Soviets were apoplectic. They spent millions trying to influence public opinion against Reagan. All this hoopla didn't work because Reagan won by one of the largest landslides in American history.

I have have been giddy ever since January 20th. I feel like it is Christmas every day of the week with no end in sight. Sometimes while riding in my car I hoop and holler like a crazy man because I am so happy. I am so proud of our president and like most Americans I have felt a gigantic sense of relief since election day. Steve Bannon calls Trump's frenetic pace "Operation Rolling Thunder". Trump has brilliantly pushed the left into a box of their own making. Everything he is doing has the overwhelming support of the people and that nullifies the lefts complaints. They look like the fools that they are.

I have always thought that there are many more sane people in this country than there are insane. What the Democrats are supporting is insanity. For too many years now I have felt like I have been in an insane asylum and the inmates have been running everything. If the Democrat party doesn't experience radical reform in their party and expel the lunatics they risk becoming extinct and that would be a great thing. The leadership of the Democrat party are evil monsters who hate this country and their goal is to destroy it. They are truly demonic. Their whole history has been a history of death, enslavement, corruption and deception that go back to their creation as a party in the 1820's. Those who support the Democrat party need to do some serious soul searching because they are supporting evil.

The fight we face is not about political parties anymore. It is not about Democrat and Republican. It is about good and evil. Hopefully the Democrat party will go the way of the Whig party of the 1800's and cease to exist. The Democrats are angry because Trump is trying to remove brick by brick the corrupt infrastructure that supports their evil power base that gives them an unfair advantage over law abiding, good people who unlike the Democrat party love this country. Our movement welcomes patriots like RFK JR. and Tulsi Gabbard whose eyes have opened to the reality of what their party is about. Many average people have walked away from the Democrat party as I walked away from it in the early 1980's. Like the patriots of 1776, we the common foot soldiers and the patriotic elites such as Trump, Musk, Bannon, Vance, Gabbard and RFK Jr. led our country to victory. We love liberty more than life itself. From this point on I identify with the words of Ulysses S. Grant in a letter that he wrote to his father in 1861. "There are two parties now: Traitors and patriots and I want hereafter to be ranked with the latter".