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Politics : WAR on Terror. Will it engulf the Entire Middle East? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: michael97123 who wrote (11346)	1/13/2006 4:37:55 PM
From: Cage Rattler	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32591

Point well taken. Consideration of the short and long-term prognoses for Russia and the CPR is an interesting exercise. I might argue that Eastern vis a vis Western culture and thinking is an important variable to consider. To over simplify I might suggest that dialectic materialism reduces behavior to an "end justifies the means" model. That argument seems more defensible in post-Bolshevik Russia than post-Mao China. After all, Chinese civilization has endured for millenniums, is arguably more diverse, and has traditional spiritual and moral values than are less obvious in Russia. Beyond it's long-established cultural characteristics, China presented the Mao revolution with a unique myriad of stumbling blocks to re-education. These included, most notably, it's enormous population and thousands of dissimilar Chinese dialects. The impact of such linguistic diversity upon the semantics of a cultural revolution is imponderable. For these reasons I feel China is intrinsically gifted with less-negotiable moral fiber than modern-day Russia. This I believe agrees with your position. India is a bit different; although it is viewed as a spiritual and peaceful nation, overflowing with loving gurus, it has been exposed to perverse influences for about a thousand years. Fortunately perhaps, the problem of that day was confronted and quelled during the Mongol invasions into Eurasia and Russia in the mid-1200’s. Now the Mongols were folks who knew the delicate balance between political correctness and militant islam. :) Unfortunately, recent attempts at fostering regional tranquility, such as the division of India and Pakistan, may have temporarily eased the problem but have manifestly failed to address the underlying issue.