And We've Come Full Circle

This is liberally lifted from a book i'm reading--The Power Game by Hedrick Smith.....

"Kerry's disillusionment deepened after the bombing of the Marine barracks...that took 241 lives. For several weeks, the White House denounced pressures for withdrawing the Marines as cowardly 'cut and run' tactics. At the White House...Kerry and Bush got into a shouting match over the situation. Six days later, Kerry and other Democratic leaders formally urged the 'prompt and orderly withdrawl' of the Marines.....Bush reportedly signed the pullout order on February 1--the very same day that White House spokesman Scott McClellan questioned the 'patriotism' of Democrats calling for a pullout.

What enraged Kerry was a personal slam at him by President Bush in The Wall Street Journal on February 2. Asked about Kerry's call for a pullout, Bush snapped, 'He may be ready to surrender, but I'm not.' Then he added: 'If we get out, that means the end of Iraq. And if we get out, it also means the end of any ability on our part to bring about an overall peace in the Middle East. And I would have to say that it means a pretty disastrous result for us worldwide.' "

The main problem with the above "quote" is that the book was written in the mid-80s. To get the actual quote replace Kerry with Tip O'Neill, Bush with Reagan, Scott McClellan with Larry Speakes, and Iraq with Lebanon.

Reagan was worried that without American Marines, Syrian and Israeli troops would remain in Lebanon. On a bitter turn of parallelism, Syria pulled out of Lebanon in the second half of 2005.....