The implication, then is that Reagan’s handling of the Cold War was a misstep; that America’s success in the Cold War was not worth the negative press and hurt feelings it brought. Perhaps Obama is right; perhaps the world was better off with a divided Germany, an ever more powerful and belligerent Russia and a feeble and weak America, just the way Obama’s predecessor in ideology left it.

But perhaps not.  Perhaps the world is better off with peaceful (though perhaps corrupt) democracies spreading globally.  Perhaps the world is better with a united Germany, able to drag Europe, kicking and screaming, out of the next Dark Ages. Perhaps, by freeing the world, we will finally be at peace because a democracy free to choose will never choose war.

Reagan was famously asked what his strategy was for the Cold War.  “Here’s my strategy on the Cold War: We win, they lose.” was his reply.  More and more it seems that Obama’s response to a similar question today would be “We lose, they win.” This seems more likely to be the Obama doctrine than the laughable “leading from behind,” but perhaps it’s the same thing.

1. The air traffic controllers reunionized before Reagan left office and have a union today.
2. ATCs are required to retire at age 56 and can retire after 25 years of service. This means that an ATC on the cusp of retirement this year would have been 26 30 years ago when the strike happened, and is at least 5 years past retirement eligibility.
3. ATCs are required to have a college degree and 3 years of work experience before becoming an ATC.  Graduating college at age 22 following 3 years of experience, this means the earliest a person can be an ATC is usually at age 25.
4. Moreover, the ATCs that refused to break the illegal strike were not only fired, but banned from federal employment for life.  Only about 2,000 ATCs crossed the picket line, further limiting the population of carryovers.
5. Therefore, anyone working as an ATC when the strike occurred is either no longer an ATC and has not been for a long time or has retired by now.  Moreover, President Reagan has been dead for almost 6 years now–if this is some form of revenge on him, it’s a bit ineffective.
6. Ms. Behar’s assertion that the ATC union would have been “more strict,” and wanting more people is 180 degrees off.  The strike was over easing working conditions and working hours.
7. As for pleading poverty, the average salary of an Air Traffic Controller is about $110,000, excluding over time.  This is not a population on the edge of starvation.

So, to sum up, if there is any connection between a sleepy ATC in 2011 and President Reagan’s decision to fire ATCs in 1981, it is only in Ms. Behars tired, confused little mind.  Other than that, she’s completely right.