So where was Gorbachev in all this, playing chess?

[goldorak]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

That's rightz, same as Obama!

Thanks, Gorby, for being slightly less meglamaniacal than the previous Soviet dictators and being naive enough to think a communist police state could co-exist with freedom of speech and thought.

I wouldn't be so condescending as Cuba is still communist country and a thorn in side for the US, and lets not even mention Cina a communist state by any definition, and no the "liberal" economic system doesn't make Cina the land of the free. Are the Cinese leaders being naive enough to think a police state can co-exist with a liberal economic system ? It works well enough for them though.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by goldorak

I wouldn't be so condescending as Cuba is still communist country and a thorn in side for the US, and lets not even mention Cina a communist state by any definition, and no the "liberal" economic system doesn't make Cina the land of the free. Are the Cinese leaders being naive enough to think a police state can co-exist with a liberal economic system ? It works well enough for them though.

I don't mean to be condescending. But I stand by my statement, communism cannot be maintained over the long term by anything other than a totalitarian state. If you want a system where people are told they cannot improve their lives by hard work and ambition, a system that does not allow rewards but rather takes personal output and spreads it across the population without regard to merit, it will have to be forced on them. That's why the USSR collapsed.

And Reagan as the leader of the US shaped policies that expedited that process. Disagree? That's your right, but tell me, what if Reagan had done the opposite? What if he had sent the Soviets monetary aid and assurred them that cracking down on the Poles and Czechs and East Germans was a-ok with the US? Think that may have had an effect on those people hopping up and down on the wall 20 years ago?

Cuba? Are you serious? They have been under the whim of a single man all my life. Maybe that's why they cannot feed their people without importing 70% of their food. Cuba...they are moving toward democracy and capitalism as well.

China is in transition. Yes, the Chinese Politburo are being naive if they think the Chinese people will tolerate being ruled by a police state govt for long. The day of the fall of the Chinese "Berlin wall" is coming.

[Reaves]

You capitalist pigs!!

[Torplexed]

Heheh. I remember editorial cartoonists had a field day with Gorby's reputation as a smoothie back then.