Russia? Partial victory

Post #30,753 by wharris2 3/4/02 7:39:14 PM Reply	Russia? Partial victory We won the Cold War, but not totally. The objective was to outlive the other superpower, and we did. The Soviet Union is gone, and we're still here. Russia still exists, and is struggling with democracy - still has plenty of potential for communist hardliners to stage a coup and try to regain what they lost. Yes, it would be a lot harder than in the days/months/years after Nazi Germany would be defeated, but they're still capable of a razed earth strategy ala Chechnya. Instability in Russia can still boil over into some sort of new Russian Federation. The goal, per se, was met, but leaving a powerful country tottering on one leg has parallels with what happened in Germany in the 20's. Where each demon is slain, more hate is raised, yet hate unchecked also multiplies. - L. E. Modesitt
Post #30,764 by marlowe 3/4/02 8:20:59 PM Reply	And this why I've long expected another Cold War... if the Muslim terrorists didn't make trouble first. But they did, so that's on hold for now. I hope. Your parallel may well be apt. It took two world wars to exorcise Nietzsche and Heidegger from the zeitgeist. It would have been nice if we could have done it with just one, or better yet, zero, but we didn't really know how. Maybe it couldn't have been done. Some stains need two treatments. The Russians have a long way to go. But at least they've taken a step in more or less the right direction. If Weimar was a practise run for West Germany, then maybe the corrupt mess in Russia now is practise for real democracy in the future. Weimar was less nasty than the Junkers, after all. But then again, Hitler was more evil than the Kaiser. The oscillations between evil and relative good increased in magnitude until they suddenly died, the energy used up. The debate was over, and the dialectic resolved. Gee, I sound awfully pollyanish, don't I? Am I just singing in the rain, or whistling past the graveyard? [link\|http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/marlowe/index.html\|http://www.angelfir...e/index.html] Truth is that which is the case. Accept no substitutes. If competence is considered "hubris" then may I and my country always be as "arrogant" as we can possibly manage.
Post #30,767 by wharris2 3/4/02 8:28:20 PM Reply	Reading the Bear and the Dragon (Tom Clancy) Although Clancy's books have, except perhaps for the Hunt for Red October, been overly beefy 1000pp extravaganzas, the scenario he paints (new discoveries of resources in Siberia and increased Chinese saber-rattling - combined with endemic Russian corruption) is plausible. Where each demon is slain, more hate is raised, yet hate unchecked also multiplies. - L. E. Modesitt

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