"Soviet Communism was disintegrating from within, Gorbachev merely speeded up its death, until his rival, Yeltsin, liquidated it. Born of a revolution, it would die of an involution. But its last leader, despised in Russia, was adored by the West right up to the end. Westerners had a hard time accepting his fall, since it necessarily spelled the end of an illusion that had filled the twentieth century. The Soviet Union left the scene of history before exhausting the patience of its foreign partisans. It left many orphans throughout the world."
--Francois Furet, The Passing of an Illusion, 1995
It's amazing how the left can be enamored with dictators. I wonder how they are taking Chavez's recent actions having praised him following his appearance at the UN.
Now thanks in large parts to American mis steps in Iraq, Russian Communism is back with a vengance. That is if we assume it ever actually went away. In any event, Russia is the single greatest threat to US national security. Iraq has been a distraction that seems to have caused us to lose sight of Russia.
I'm more worried (and there would be more of a chance) that I'd be killed by a border crashing illegal alien than I am that an Iraqi or Russian will do the same.
Asdf
You may well be right. Its just that when Russia who has the largest and most advanced nuclear arsenal in the world declares America as its number one enemy it causes me to stand up and take notice.
I'm with you on the illegal immigration issue. I think a better use of our military would be to bring them home and use them to secure our borders. As we do this, we should develop more of our own oil and gas reserves. In time, we could probably extricate ourselves entirely from the middle east. At the very least, by developing more of our own oil and gas reserves we will have more leverage when dealing with OPEC nations.
I know I've been harping on this, but after watching our government continue to bungle the illegal immigration issue, I truly believe that if we don't start paying attention and push to have our elected officials take seriously their responsibility to protect us, we will continue to be open to other harms, including a heavily armed and dangerous Russia, for example.
The way that this immigration fiasco has been allowed to fester based on how our government has refused to enforce existing laws designed to protect us, shows that our current batch of alleged leaders are incompetent and incapable of handling any of the serious and complicated issues of our day (like Iraq). And things won’t be getting any easier as the major players of the World continue to battle for power and resources.
We need first to be adults and get serious about obeying the rule of law by enforcing the laws designed to protect our country against invaders then, and in the meantime, start to formulate how we will handle other World issues without. But, we need leaders who are willing to go beyond being more than a bumper sticker slogan.
Asdf
You are quite right. Please continue "harping on this" and other issues. I always find your comments to be very informative:)
Thank you. I will.
