The Real Ed Murrow

We've come a hell of a long way from the effects of a fluff interview on world politics, but it's been a hell of a ride, so far, you have my kudos.

For both of our sakes, please stop repeting the incorrect assertion that Reagan somehow single-handedly changed the dynamic of the Cold War and brought about its end. You know what he did? He pushed the US to the brink of bankrupcy with his Strategic Defence Initiative, did you know that during his presidency the US went from being the world's largest creditor nation to the world's largest debtor nation, a position we've yet to give up. Did he do his part? Yes, but let's ask someone who might be in the know, like Marshal Viktor Kulikov, former commander of Warsaw Pact forces, who in 1992, said that the ultimate forces that brought about the downfall of the Soviet Union "started with Truman". The Truman plan and its close relative the Marshal Plan were to contain the Soviet Union as best as possible, as the Soviet style of government is ulimately self-defeating. The only way wealth of sustanence can be aquired in that kind of system is to acquire it from outside, because it cannot be generated internally. After 45 years of a top-down system of industry directed at production of military goods and minimal development of the infrastructure necessary to maintain a solid economy, the system had no choice but to collapse in on itself. The first serious cracks began to show in the 1960s, when the relatively meager economic resources of the Soviet Union were already over extended, including the costs they incurred from the Cuban Missile Crisis. The system became even more strained in the 1970s, when the military-industrial complex was taxing the production capabilities of Soviet agriculture, and the USSR was forced to begin spending some of its small hard capital on the international market to buy foodstuffs, most notably excess grain from the United States.

That leads me to say (somewhat in lighthearted jest, but not without a large grain of truth): You know who really brought about the fall of the Eastern Block? The American farmer, good job guys!

All that said, I've decided that this will be my last post on this particular thread, if it makes you feel like you have won something, more power to you. But before I go, let me wax a little philosophic on the matters we've covered;

Nothing is black and white, and false dichotemies(Sp?) don't serve to further human thought. It's not "us vs them", "left vs right", or any other such formulation you want to make. It's about the ability to hold an oppinion, speak of it openly, and if possible, act on it rationally.

Fear is ultimately the tool of the tyrant, regardless of location or official position one holds, they can wield the weapon of fear to create a society that restricts the basic freedom that you and I have to be engaged in this particular conversation. The United States was born of the idea that one should not be afraid of the power of the government, the entirety of the Bill of Rights was written to protect the people from that fear. Regardless which, should any sacred right of the Bill of Rights (freedom of speech, press, peaceable assemble, religion, petition for redress of grievances, to chose whether or not to own a gun, quartering troops w/o just compensation, unreasonable search and siesure, all forms of due process, speedy trial by jury, being protected from cruel and unusual punishment, and the list goes on... ) be violated, restricted, or impuned upon, then the United States will have lost any claim that it can make to a moral high ground.

There have been many times when I have had to pause and think of reasonably eloquent prose to express my oppinion, and I don't think I've quite done it justice, so please allow me to borrow some words that I think summarize what it is that I am trying to say, and with the overall nature of this particular board, I hope you'll find them appropriated:

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men — not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.
This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home...

and as it is currently a quarter after 9PM where I am, I'll borrow one more line;

Good Night, and Good Luck

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