And after all that sophistry, you must then contradict yourself, or deny that USSR communism was unworkable and unsustainable. You can't have it both ways.
It's hard to believe anything could have kept the USSR afloat, with or without trillions in US expenditures and belligerence.
Had they rolled unopposed into Afghanistan, it would have had the results seen in other ex-USSR satellites, with the added benefit of not being a US-sponsored staging ground for terrorist cells, which came back to attack the US.
As the CFR fellow said yesterday, our "thug management" system needs improvement. DOD has too much influence and gov't is too eager to apply military solutions, regardless of expense or efficacy.
the Soviet Union suffered political collapse as a result of the success of containment in Afghanistan and Central America, and Reagan's successful challenge of European neutralism, and ability to place intermediate range missiles despite mass protests. But more than that, it was the specter of an unwinnable arms race, in the form of SDI, that spurred glasnost and perestroika. |
