Memo to the Next President: Show the World Not to Mess with America

In 1983, the liberation of Grenada marked the first time a self-declared Communist regime was overthrown. “Such an event was not supposed to be possible,” wrote Reagan advisor Michael Ledeen, “as the [Soviet] Brezhnev Doctrine held that once a country had become Communist, the iron laws of history made that an irreversible step.” Thus, it scared the hell out of the Soviets and their allies — and reminded them that the Reagan administration was not to be trifled with.

Iranian exile journalist Amir Taheri wrote of the Islamic principal — held deeply by Iran and ISIS — that “a land that falls under Muslim rule, even briefly, can never again be ceded to non-Muslims. What matters in Islam is ownership of a land’s government, even if the majority of inhabitants are non-Muslims.”