V-Gram 8

January 25, 1996

Not only Reagan, Bush, too

The 5th anniversary of Desert Storm has come at a moment when even The New York Times reports the sorry state of the Russian Armed Forces and criticizes Yeltsin's policies. The time may be appropriate to consider the long-term significance of the Gulf War: It delivered the final blow to the already ailing Soviet Union.

East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia - the Outer Empire of the Soviet Union had disintegrated only the year before. Now, it was her military hardware, and the troops she had trained, which literally crumbled before the Allied Forces. And the last straw: Iraq, the humble client state, when asked by Gorbachev to leave Kuwait, paid no attention to the advice of the paternal Soviet leadership. A few months later, the Soviet Union - indeed, the Russian Empire - filed for bankruptcy.

Because of the concerted effort by our historians to strip America and the West of accomplishments, a detailed and proper evaluation of all these events has yet to appear. Some day, though, the value of rebuilding our armed forces to a high state of readiness, and the gritty act of sending them to the Gulf will be acknowledged. Credit is due to the much-maligned George Bush and, as his 85th birthday approaches, homage to the truly visionary Ronald Reagan.