>>>I was amazed at how quickly the former Soviet Union collapsed.<<<
I was, too, but I think I understand it to some extent.
1. Some of the outlying "republics" had large moslem populations. The United States, using Radio Liberty, had been beaming anti-Soviet broadcasts to thos places using the native languages and emphasizing the irreligious natyure of communism. Also, the U. S. supported moslem resitance to Russia in Afghanistan, and the Russians were driven out.
2. In the FIRST Iraq war, the U. S. announced its goals, quickly achieved them, and then stopped any further invasion. This made clear that:
a. The U. S. was indeed extremely powerful and efficient and,
b. at that time had no further interests in projecting power into a region bordering the USSR.
3. Reagan had made clear an intention to build effective antimissile defenses that the Russian economy was unable to match.
All this made it clear to the Russians that the U. S. did not seek world domination but that it had no intention of allowing any other country to seek it.
Since then, it appears that we have got into an undeclared war against Islam, unlike the confrontation with communism, which was explicit. Holy War --despite any denials by more peaceable Moslems-- does seem to be instrinsic to Islam.
I'd like to read a good book that discusses and explains why, in the United States, Christianity seems to take about as much from the Old Testament as from the New. A lot of thoughtless American Protestants don't seem to think of Jesus as God; for them, God is the God of the Old Testament--righteous, jealous, vengeful, a god of war; they want to put up the Ten Commandments in every courthouse, not the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount. |
