War Addict History To Laugh At
Apparently the Cold War was a right-wing fantasy. Comments from Left Field:
Ronald Reagan did not “win” the Cold War. If any one person can be credited with bringing the Cold War to an end, that person was Mikhail Gorbachev. It’s true that the Soviet Union fell in large part because it was bankrupted by 40 years of the most unprecedented arms buildup in human history, but that’s nothing the United States should take pride in, because that arms buildup brought us to the brink of nuclear war at least twice, and it was totally unnecessary. The entire Cold War was premised on two false beliefs: one, that the Soviet Union had a military arsenal equal or superior to our own, so that we always had to “catch up”; and two, that the Soviet government had global expansionist ambitions, and was willing to launch a first strike on the United States to achieve those ambitions. In fact, the Soviets were convinced that the U.S. government was planning to launch a first strike on them. The Soviets never had the financial resources to conduct the kind of arms race that went on for those four decades, but they felt they had no choice, because, from their point of view, they could not imagine why the Americans would be so committed to building up their nuclear arsenal — way beyond the point of parity — if they were not planning on using those nuclear weapons on the Soviet Union. This, and much more, is laid out in meticulously researched detail by Richard Rhodes, in his book Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race, which I read a couple of months ago.
Haven’t read the book, but apparently it details what a peace-loving, kite-flying, deeply misunderstood nation the Soviet Union was.
What I’m getting from this is that Soviet nukes were no big deal, as long as they had more than us, and if we just had a little faith in human kindness. Now she tells us. It’s something like that, anyway. It’s not entirely clear what this dingbat from Left Field is saying on that score, and I’m way too neurotically war-addicted to think straight at present. But apparently Soviet global expansionist ambitions were OK as long as they did not entail first-strike nuclear plans. Millions of eastern Europeans, Koreans, Vietnamese, Afghans, Cubans, Angolans, Nicaraguans, etc., will be glad to hear it wasn’t a problem after all. We should take no pride in the fall of the Berlin Wall, etc., because if we waited for another 50 years or so … actually I’m not sure about that part because she never explains how and when the Soviet Union was supposed to end itself. I think the idea might be along the lines of the Obama doctrine: importune softly and carry a white flag.
It’s a relevant history lesson, because much like Ahmadinejad doesn’t really intend to get a bomb and blow up Israel and control the Middle East, neither was the Cold War about the advance of international socialism of the most vile, degrading and murderous variety. Like this Bush Iran thing, it was about the scourge of American paranoia.
The world we are living in now, and those “serious threats” that the neocons see everywhere they look, are the inheritance handed down to us from the Cold War and its enthusiastic adherents. All of the C.I.A.-engineered coups, U.S.-supported brutal dictatorships, arms deals, defense contracts, creation of new weapons systems, and wars — Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf War, the war of sanctions, the invasion of and war against Iraq, and the continuing military occupation — have not made Americans, or anyone else in the world, one bit safer. Which is why those who believe so deeply in war as a means to address existential threats continue to tout war as the way to go: It hasn’t worked yet, but they are still hoping that it will.
We should use our words, military industrial war pig complex is bad, threats are not serious, and anyway, we have it coming. Related matter, while we’re on the subject, which Yanqui Imperialista war pig’s bright idea was it to force the Soviets to flood the world with AK-47s?
Here’s an earlier post from some porridge-brained Left Fielder who actually thinks the Soviets were a threat. Sheesh. He has correctly noted however that letting Iranians get nukes and dominate the Middle East is no big deal.
Everyone of course is riffing off this absurd piece by Jennifer Rubin at Commentary that suggests Obama is some kind of naive moron.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:23 pm on Monday, May 19, 2008
6 Responses to “War Addict History To Laugh At”
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May 20th, 2008 at 2:21 am
I’d say that the existence of the Comintern is ample evidence of the global ambitions of the Soviets, that and their constant attempts to foment communist revolutions all over the world, their occupation of eastern Europe, etc., etc.. The author of the piece appears to be blissfully unaware of the stated policy goals of the Soviet government or the existence of the Communist International, or of what the Soviets actually did.
Not too surprising, really. She sounds like a grade A idiot.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:42 am
“Ronald Reagan did not “win” the Cold War. If any one person can be credited with bringing the Cold War to an end, that person was Mikhail Gorbachev.”
Right. In much the same way that Adolf Hitler can be credited with bringing WWII in Europe to an end by graciously putting a bullet into his own brain.
Thanks, Adolf.
May 20th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Well, I guess all those years I spent in then-West Germany, looking east across the International German Border, with the armed guards in then-East Germany, looking back, were wasted.
Not to mention those Soviet combined armies rolling around east Europe back then; boy did they ever waste their time, huh?.
/sarcasm
This is not a new meme. Our long departed, unlamented troll, The Alphtard™, espoused the same thing. Which simply reinforces Dave’s conclusion that Kathy is an idiot.
May 20th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Maybe they were convinced that we would strike first given the opportunity, because that’s what they would do in our place?
The idea that the USSR was non-expansionary is ludicrous. Their actions in the aftermath of WWII alone put the lie to that. The only reason they didn’t move further into Europe was that we wouldn’t let them.
May 20th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Ever wonder why the “human shields” didn’t go into Afghanistan when the Soviets rolled in?
Because they are on the same side, and still are, apparently.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:51 pm
[...] the Boston Herald’s’ Jules Crittenden, who wrote a post in reply called “War Addict History To Laugh At“. To summarize both posts, Kathy implied that rightwing elements forming US foreign policy [...]