@Setanta,
Setanta wrote:
My statement is easily defensible, and i've defended it before. You just don't like to acknowledge that your idol Ronnie Ray-gun cannot be credited for the collapse of the Soviet Union.
But I didn't claim that he alone did that - as you well know.
Setanta wrote:
The Soviet Union had committed large numbers of troops to eastern Europe before Reagan was elected, and before he was a candidate. The Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan before Reagan was elected and before he was a candidate. All of the major weapons systems in the last decade of the Soviet Union--the T72 main battle tank, the MiG25 and MiG29, the Sukoi 25, the last models of the SCUD missiles--were already deployed or in the final stages of testing before Reagan was elected and before he was a candidate.
Your story incomplete in several important details here, and the relationship of your point to your conclusion is illogical.
Setanta wrote:
Your entire theory of how Ronnie Ray-gun's wild and irresponsible "defense" spending brought about the fall of the Soviet Union is bullshit, and is not supported by the evidence.
But that wasn't my story at all. That was instead your self-serving, simplistic target of choice.
Setanta wrote:
There was already a movement to break away from the Soviet Union in Poland and Hungary before Reagan was elected. More than anything else, the administration of Mikhail Gorbachev with his glasnost and perestroika (those may not be correctly spelled, but i'm not going to any trouble to theck them when i'm pointing out to you what i've pointed out to you before) lead to the demise of the Soviet Union. In the specific case of East Germany, the decision of the Hungarians to open their border with Austria lead to a cascade of events which the East German authorities could not control. That decision was a direct result of the policies of Gorbachev.
Many things contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union, including the factors you identified and, as well as even the unexpected beneficial effects of the International Convention on Human Rights, championed by Jimmy Carter. However, I don't think that Gorbacchev conteplated or wished for the disintegrtation of either the Soviet Empire in Europe or the USSR.
Setanta wrote:
Your statement is bullshit because there was no "anticipated" time for the collapse of the Soviet Union. You just want to wax rhapsodic about your hero Ray-gun. Too bad the facts don't support your bullshit.
An intemperate statement that flies in the face of the facts. I asserted that Reagan hastened the fall of a corrupt but still dangerous Empire. He did so in part by repeating to a Western Europe all too willing to ignore the situation and the condition of their neighbors in Central Europe and to live comfortably in the shadow of a superpower confrontation, the danger and oppression in their region, and in many other ways encouraged the resistance of restive political groups in the captive nations. By the way I herd that opinion expressed a great deal by people I met in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland during a tour last year.
in my post, Setanta?
