Your second paragraph is a huge reach. I think your post in general, ignores the context of the Cold War. From the American and NATO perspective, as well as much of the international human rights community, "Soviet-backed" States, or puppet states (which is what they really were), were not recognized as legitimate. They were widely condemned for large scale atrocities.
The model was typically that the Soviets would select a corrupt leader which they could manipulate, then arm his regime to the teeth. This pattern of Soviet imperialism engulfed much Africa, and is a root problem of all the genocides that have occurred there over the past 20 years. This is how hundreds of thousands of AKs got onto the African Continent.
As far as Afganistan goes, the savage war with the Soviets is responsible for radicalizing the Mujahadeen. OBL's ideology and rise to prominence occurred purely as a result of the Soviet invasion and the subsequent war. So, to summarize, the full scale Soviet invasion of Afghanistan unified and radicalized much of the Muslim world into Jihad (first against the Soviets, then, after the First Gulf War, against the West). The Soviet invasion was only defensible when viewed through the prism of absurd and outdated propaganda.
It never ceases to amaze me how quickly people forget the nature of the Stalinist USSR and the myriad of large scale atrocities it commited, at home and abroad. The US was certainly not without blame in those years, but by and large, we were fighting the good fight. I was never a fan of Reagan, but when he said the Soviets were not to be negotiated with, they were to be defeated, he hit the bull's eye. The dire poverty and stiffling political corruption in most of Eastern Europe and parts of the former USSR is a large part of the legacy of the Soviet Union.
Its unbelievably misguided to buy into the absurd propaganda of a now extinct regime, just because you hate the US.
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AtheistRevolution
12 years ago
Good fight?LOL! Neither side is a saint and both US and Soviet Union committed atrocities. Africa suffered from European colonialism and Soviet Union provided the weapons to fight them off.Of course US or Soviet Union didn't do things because they were good but because it was about power. To profess either side as good and evil would mean you're quite brainwashed. A government like a corporations does things for the elite and rulers.If they actually lived up to their ideas we wouldn't have so many wars,revolutions,mass murders,etc.
I agree that the problems that currently face Eastern Europe is part of the failure of Soviet Union. And the success of US and Western Europe has to do with colonialism,slavery, neocolonialism,genocide,drug market,etc. Eastern Europe is what Western Europe would look like without colonialism. It just shows how brainwashed you're to call Soviet Union evil but ignore the atrocities that Western Europe and US committed on a world wide scale also for elites and corporations. Smedley Butler put it best.
“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.
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chas437
12 years ago
Well, I'm not going to argue the Afghan point any further.
You are right, the American government and the CIA did a lot of really bad things during the Cold War. Granted, it was mostly out of desperate fear of the spread of Stalinist Communism. The point that Goldwater made "excess.....is no vice", sort of ruled the day.
I don't consider myself brain-washed whatsoever. When I was twenty years younger, I would have agreed with everything in your post and then some. Time and a better sense of context has taught me that the USSR truly was a cancer on humanity, and getting rid of it was imperative at any cost, short of atomic war. So, on that count, America was fighting the "good fight". That said, America has engaged in unprovoked wars, and I believe our ex-President and his cabinent should be tried as war criminals. Our foreign policy in the Middle East has been an absolute disaster. I agree with your points about our imperial tradition as well.
So, I have no delusions of the US having the moral high ground in regards to any Nation at the current time.
But I do believe that the defeat of Fascism as well as the defeat of Stalinism were just causes.
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