SireChaos -> RE: English is Easy? (10/12/2008 10:59:17 PM)
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ORIGINAL: Son_of_Montfort Ok, my only political commentary. I think its funny that a person from the country of Juan and Eva Peron is lecturing anyone on the ethics of nations. Puh-leese. [8|] Denigrating the service record of the armed forces here is a dangrous thing to do. If you ask current West Germans if they appreciated Nato, and American, troops stationed in their lands for over 30 years, you will get a near resounding "Ja!" No one was soliciting thanks for this sort of thing. America shouldn't be given full credit for "saving the world," but it was, to a large extent, the diplomatic efforts of presidents such as Nixon and Reagan that allowed for democratic regimes to triumph over international communist ones. Did the west also sponsor dictatorial regimes, particularly in South America? You betcha. But at the time, this seemed to be the best course of action, although it seems abominable now. Hard to say what had happened if these actions had not been taken. As I said - enlightened self-interest. Sadly, in some cases, not so enlightened, and I think you will find that these are the cases which draw the majority of the criticism. Those, and the people who demand that the US be eternally celebrated as heroes for exercising said enlightened self-interest. quote:
Lastly, I doubt the Soviet Union actually had the strength to pull off what you are arguing above. Historians mostly assert now that Soviet strength was more of a paper tiger than once thought, and that there was less central control of the Soviet military than once believed. Double agents, particularly Aldrich Ames, were responsible for extending the length of the cold war and exaggerating Soviet readiness and military strength. They may have been powerful, but they were in no way as strong as we believed in the 70s-80s. SoM Hell, yes. By the accounts, East Germany was among the healthier Warsaw Pact economies, and... well, I´ve been there several times shortly after the Wall fell, and, let´s say, I was not impressed. Downtrodden, backwards, in disrepair, derelict... you´ll have to excuse me, English is not my first language and I´m running out of applicable terms.
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