posted on Mar, 11 2007 @ 06:59 PM
Originally posted by Charles Lee
Originally posted by bjshobbes
I think Russia is alot more volatile than China. Yes, they've been around a while, but they too can be their own worst enemy. I wonder what things
would be like if Ronald Reagan was never President.
Russia still would of collapsed. It's corruption and deficit spending pretty much ran it into it's own collapse. The US pride likes to say they
destroyed it, and so does the Islamic revolution in Afghanistan, but truth is it destroyed itself.
You may be right to a degree. But Reagan's defense spending, as well as the much-feared-by-Russia SDI program, hastened the downfall of the USSR.
While Reagan alone is not responsible for the Soviet's downfall, he certainly is among the more-deserving of such credit. Many leaders took part in
the policy that defeated communism, from Reagan to Thatcher to Pope John Paul II. Basically every US President from Truman on also did their part.
Who can say for sure how much longer the USSR would have lasted if Reagan weren't elected? I venture to guess that without the confrontational
diplomacy, military spending and strong posture of Reagan, the USSR could still be around today. Of course, communism by its nature is eventually
doomed to fail- especially without a capitalist-style economy like China is adopting. The bottom line is that we can learn a lot of lessons from
Ronald Reagan, mostly that the right thing to do isn't always the most popular thing at the time- and that freedom must be fought for and defended at
all costs. Enormously valuable lessons especially in these times. History is far more kind to Reagan than his contemporaries were- especially some
of those politicians who are still in power and who praise him today, but in the 80's they fought hard against him and campaigned to voluntarily
eliminate our nuclear arsenal and cut our defense spending.
On the other points made... I certainly don't trust Putin either. And to me, the USSR never completely fell. It just split up, with Russia
remaining as the new, leaner and meaner version of the USSR. Some say it was all a setup for the US to lower its guard. I'm not sure if I would go
that far. But I'm certain that Putin yearns for the days of old, and is doing everything in his power to bring Russia back to its glory days. I
think that we need to put our foot down when dealing with him, but we also must do our best to be diplomatic because he does have the ear of some of
our enemies. The fact that Russia currently produces the most oil in the world is also worrisome.