>> Doesn't anybody, liberal or conservative, militarist or pacifist or anywhere on the continuum, believe in individual responsibility anymore? Yes, they do have control. Anybody, at any time, can make the choice, to stop killing.
Jacob, if a large portion of the enlisted personnel were conscripts (and therefore representative of run-of-the-mill society), then you'd see a range of non-compliance.
Instead we have a sub-group that is self-selected for desire to follow orders. Why do you expect them to not follow orders ?
>> From 1989-1991, the soldiers of all the Warsaw Pact nations, almost unanimously made the choice not to fire on their fellow citizens who were protesting in the streets.
I don't think that is how it happened. The collapse of the Soviet Union started when Gorbachov decided to not have the army quell some demonstrations in (I think) Georgia. That was the cue to other holders of power that they would not face a Soviet invasion if they allowed the Prague Spring to happen again.
The leaders of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia were not enthusiastic repressors. They were mostly trying to stave off a soviet re-invasion. So when the soviets had decided that totalitarian communism had failed, they were ready to take jump ahead.
The masses were ready. but I am convinced the revolution came from the top. |
