Personal Experiences: How Valuable Are they?

In Terry and Madeleine Anderson's book Den of Lions, Madeleine writes about falling in love with Terry. They began planning a life together. She became pregnant. It would be the second marriage for both. Their wonderful dream ended on March 16, 1985, when Terry was kidnapped by Islamic thugs.

"They robbed us of our happiness. They took everything in a blink of an eye, and planted hate instead of love in my heart," writes Madeleine. She knew it was because of her that Terry had requested to be assigned by the AP to Lebanon. Three weeks after his abduction Madeleine was entering her eighth month of pregnancy, and she realized that she had to leave Lebanon. She flew to New York to live with Terry's sister Peggy See, in Batavia, Terry's hometown.

Terry had gone to Lebanon shortly after it was invaded by Israel in 1982. He soon became utterly fascinated by the place. He likens his work there to the high-wire-artist, trying to keep his balance, "risking his life to please the crowd, for fame, the thrill of danger, and the pleasure of performing feats that few can do."

Despite the fact that the "fascination never faded," Anderson was not immune to the pain of others. For him it was the dark, deep eyes of Palestinian and Lebanese children," and the sight of "doctors operating on grievously wounded people." He had enormous respect for the correspondent from the London Times, Robert Fisk, who told him, "There are no good guys (in Lebanon). The gunmen are little fury creatures with yellow teeth and small brains and guns."

Terry writes, "Over strong protests from both the U.S. Embassy and the Marine command, the Reagan administration shifted from peacekeeping to "support of the legitimate government." The problem with that was that the Gemayal government had little to claim to legitimacy and less to governing."

Conservatives have been criticizing President Obama for not supporting Iranians who are protesting the recent election "results." They cite Ronald Reagan's stance in support of Polish workers. It was Reagan's experience as President of the Screen Actors Guild that led him to thoroughly know and understand communists who were attempting to infiltrate the actors' union. He developed convictions, which led to his marvelous stands against communism.

Unfortunately Reagan had no personal experience with the complex world of the Middle East, and he was, therefore, not nearly as competent in dealing with that region of the world. I am having trouble jumping on the knee-jerk conservative bandwagon criticizing Obama for being too cautious. Like Reagan and the communists, Obama does have some personal experience with the Muslim world. Most of the rest of us do not.