AOL headline "Walls crumbled because of him"

[malatesta1137]

When will this bullshit end?

Reagan had NOTHING to do with the crumbling of Communism, which self-destructed. He happened to be the President when it happened and he didn't win the Cold War either, his only purpose was to prolong it as much as possible, so the Defense industry could make more illegal profits. Reagan was the worst America had to offer, a deadly cancer.

[Fenris]

1. Walls? Perhaps. His mind? Definitely.

[Burma Jones]

2. Roads and Bridges crumbled because of him - more appropriate

[KamaAina]

3. That headline is as true as tomorrow's sunrise

and you needn't go to Berlin to prove it.

Instead, just go to any of America's decaying inner cities. Look around and see how many walls are crumbling there that stood sound in 1980.

Then go back and click on the headline again...

[ewagner]

4. That's just about the worst I've heard so far

The only thing to top it is how Reagan SAVED America!

Such utter bullshit!

I'm afraid we're in for a full week of this crap!

[neuvocat]

5. They must be talking about church and state.

[Eric J in MN]

6. At first I thought you meant bombs in Nicaragua (nt)

nt

[Minstrel Boy]

7. Walls crumbled! Liberals trembled!

Up, up and away, Ronnie!

[unblock]

8. to credit reagan with the fall of communism is to insult capitalism

and 70 years of consistent american policy.

the fact of the matter is that communism fell under its own weight, it (at least, in the soviet incarnation) being an inefficient resource allocation system, especially when combined with truly massive military spending.

it used to be that republicans shouted that communism would eventually fail because capitalism is superior. it used to be that republicans would say that when communism finally did fall, it would prove that capitalism was superior.

but somehow the republican party got taken over my liars and mythmakers bent on turning all politics into imagery, marketing, and personalities -- the better to hide their destructive and genuinely unpopular policies. so they looked around and decided who to give credit to and came up with reagan.

so somehow, reagan, who followed carter's playbook, and carter, who in turn did pretty much what every president did since wwii, gets single-handed credit for bringing down the wall. pretty much the only meaningful thing he did differently was to explicitly say, "bring down this wall". as if that was what did the trick! eisenhower is presumably rolling in his grave, thinking, gee, if only i had ASKED!

oh, and by the way, the berlin wall fell 11/9/89. bush the elder was president, not reagan.

[madaboutharry]

9. Think about who is writing headlines for AOL

I don't think you'll find any historians. This is the problem with journalism in America today, zero standards.