Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

While searching Google’s Usenet archives looking for an old friend, I stumbled across the first Usenet posting that I ever made on the subject of politics. It was in April, 1986, and I ventured into a heated discussion in net.followup about Reagan’s bombing of Libya.
The sense of déjà vu is weird. Take this bit, for instance:
It’s ironical, isn’t it? Over the last year or so the “Great Communicater [sic]” has presided over an absolutely disastrous slide in the world perception of the U.S. […] A good indication of this is the fact that last week the Soviets felt able to launch a massive series of air strikes against the Afghan rebels, knowing that compared with the Libyan raid it would be a non-event.
Substitute Bush for Reagan, and Chechnya for Afghanistan….