Op-ed:
Rest in Peace 'Iron Lady'
Rest in Peace 'Iron Lady'
By: Diane Sori
Winston Churchill, Golda Meir, Ronald Reagan...most of the great ones of the 20th century are gone, and yesterday we lost another giant amongst leaders as British Prime Minister Baroness Margret Thatcher, 'The Iron Lady' as she will forever be known, died peacefully after suffering a stroke.
As the first woman to hold the position of Prime Minister (1979-1990), Margret Thatcher transformed her country and the world with her unyielding anti-Communist, anti-Socialist stance, and with her unabashed embrace of capitalism. Lady Thatcher turned Britain, paralyzed by strikes and impoverished, into a proud, rich, powerful, world-beacon of a country.
Margret Thatcher came to be known as the peacetime Churchill...tenacious, implacable, and with a sometimes terrifying steely resolve. As Prime Minister she brought both positive and negative changes (the poll tax) to the British economy and political landscape. A larger than life political figure of conservative consequence who lauded over the leftist political bloviators of her day, Margret Thatcher was the epitome of strength, dignity, courage, and leadership as was evidenced by her standing strong in her belief in a robust free market system of government while most of Europe was leaning towards socialism.
"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money," she said...wise words that need to be heeded today.
Margret Thatcher was a champion of private business ownership, when in 1980, with more people out of work in Britain than at any time since the Great Depression (there was 13% unemployment when she entered office, 5.8% when she left office), she transferred many state owned businesses into the private sector, a move which put people back to work as profits soared. She also broke the power of the labor unions and forced the opposing Labour Party to abandon its ideology of nationalized industry. Margret Thatcher was in power when Britain fought and won, with Her Majesty's warships, the Falkland Islands War against Argentina in 1982.
"We have raised Britain in the respect of the world from what it was -- broke, bankrupt, unwilling to defend itself properly," Lady Thatcher said in 1987. "We have, I think, transformed Britain."
Yes, madame Prime Minister you sure did, and together with our
beloved Ronald Reagan, as one voice united in everlasting friendship,
they helped transform the world by bringing the mighty Soviet Union
to its knees as they ushered in the fall of communism, warmed up the
Cold War, and reunited Germany with the tearing down of the Berlin
Wall. 
In fact, Margret Thatcher's positive rapport with the Mikhail
Gorbachev (“I like Mr. Gorbachev...We can do business together”),
and her deep friendship with Ronald Reagan made her a critical link between
the White House and the Kremlin in their negotiations to halt the
arms race of the 1980s.Thatcher and Reagan...allies on the deepest level (ideology soul mates they have been called), Lady Thatcher NEVER wavered in her support of Reagan or with his world view. A strident and adamant defender of the United States, Lady Thatcher was considered Britain's Ronald Reagan. In fact Reagan called her the "best man in England" and she called him "the second most important man in my life.”
After stepping down as Prime Minister in 1990, Lady Thatcher remained steadfast in expressing her opinions, and in her defense of the United States. She advocating Western intervention to stop the ethnic bloodshed in the Balkans in the early 1990s, and after the September 11th terrorist attacks, believing that terrorism demanded a united response, she endorsed President George W. Bush’s policy of sanctioning pre-emptive strikes against governments that sponsored terrorism. She also outwardly and vocally supported the war to overthrow the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein.
Margret Thatcher broke many barriers and was admired and respected for her brilliance, charisma, and political savvy. This wondrous woman knew how to lead...NO dithering, NO faltering, and NO vacillating. She was one of the last politicians you could look at and know exactly what she stood for.
A great leader, most assuredly...an important one, undoubtedly...a determined one, without question.
“My task will not be completed until
the Labour Party has become like the Conservative Party, a party of
capitalism.”Hopefully, Lady Thatcher's wish will someday become reality, but until then may she and Reagan's words and visions help guide us back to both our country's shared conservative roots.
Rest in peace 'Iron Lady' knowing you made a difference NOT only to Britain but to the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment