The death of Margaret Thatcher on Monday prompted millions around the world to express the thought, "Where are there more like her-" Half her people may have hated the Iron Lady, but everyone knew where she was leading them. Half her people thought she was taking them to troubled waters, but everyone knew this was better than standing still. Thatcher was a scrappy woman for whom a whole type of conservative political philosophy was named. Thatcher was already sharpening her nails during her stint as the education secretary in the early 1970s. She abolished free milk for students in secondary schools and millions of parents hated her. But she also built many comprehensive schools (secondary schools for children of all abilities and circumstances), turning millions of the parents who hated her into admirers. Thatcher's policies marked the first time in post-World War II British history that the needy were given a fishing pole, rather than free fish. It could be that Thatcher was too cruel toward the weak sectors of society and perhaps she could have acted with more balance and moderation. But her political rivals only chattered among themselves while she rescued, whether in the correct manner or not, the entire British economy. Thatcher also restored national honor in the diplomatic arena. Perhaps if Argentina had asked for the Falkland Islands, Britain would have handed over the unimportant territory at the edge of its empire. But Argentina did not know with whom it was messing when its military unilaterally seized the Falklands (called the Islas Malvinas by Argentina) in 1982. Thatcher sent a naval fleet across the Atlantic Ocean to rehoist the Union Jack above the Falklands. If "Maggie" were still living at the prime minister's residence at 10 Downing Street, and if she had a partner in the White House like Ronald Reagan, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would not dare to act the way he does toward current Western leaders. Ahmadinejad would remember the Falkland Islands, just as North Korea would restrain itself if it were to face a general like Douglas MacArthur across the 38th parallel, as it did in 1950. The yearning for Thatcher is not for her economic or defense policies, but rather for her style of leadership. It is a longing for her determination and the sense that she would stand up to tough opponents and never hide behind someone else in the ring. She even contributed to feminism, although it was foreign to her. She will go down in the history books as the Iron Lady who said that while others (male politicians) were prone to U-turns, "the lady's not for turning."
