Good morning Barry (although I suppose it's actually the afternoon in the UK)....
quote:
Originally posted by Barry the Sprout:
Read the Communist Manifesto, it is completely different from how you imagined it I would bet. The whole idea of Communism is that it has to happen globally and it has to happen when people are ready for it.
Actually Barry, I have read the Communist Manifesto, but it was many years ago in a college Political Ideologies class. I thought that it was evil philosophy then have seen nothing to change my mind in the meantime.
Just to "prove" (for whatever its worth to you) that I did listen in class, I remember that it was believed that the first communist revolution would occur in a European industialized country or the USA first, rather than the agrarian Imperial Russia. I also remember that Lenin, while hardly an angel, seemed to be a relatively decent enough sort, as revolutionary leaders go (also seen thru the lens of looking back many decades into the past). Having said that, I still believe that the philosophy that he was supporting was still evil.
quote:
Originally posted by BtS:
This is why I think one of the only countries as a socialist I can learn from is Cuba.
Cuba is an evil repressive communist dictatorship and, once Castro is pushing up daisies, Cuba will be the better for it.
quote:
Originally posted by BtS:
I did mean the Soviets are to blame as well, sorry if that didn't come across. I beleive I mentioned them earlier for their involvement. But what I was driving at is that all of us (the US, the UK, and the Soviets) used Afghanistan to play our poer struggles. And then we left it. The Soviets went in and we responded. But before that my country had had its turn at buggering the regions infrastructure. And now we are going to do it again.
The Soviets are primarily to blame for the long term mess in Afghanistan. Theirs was the original sin. That must never be forgotten. The fact that the US responded to their invasion does not mean that the US got tagged "it" and took over blame for the mess. Indeed, perhaps Russia should be paying reparations to Afghanistan. (I do realize that Russia is not really in any monetary position to do so.) "We", the US, didn't do it the first time, as you stated in the final sentence above. And the US is not responsible for the situation in Afghanistan this time. Long-term, the Russians are. Short-term, the Taliban is.
Don't take this too personally, but this is one of the reasons that people of my philosophical bent believe that people on the far left are Anti-American. The far left always seems unable to look at a situation with clear and pure logic and place the blame accurately. It's always easier for the left to blame the USA, capitalism, western cultural imperialism, etc. The fact that the USA did not clean up the USSR's mess in Afghanistan doesn't make the Afghani situation the USA's responsibility. The USSR created the mess. It was their responsibility.
The US and the West are engaged in a legitimate act of self-defense against what was the acting (if not recognized) government of a country that was openly harboring a group that attacked the US, specifically, and the West, in general.
Catch ya later....
