Unlikely Propositions

Submitted by LDC (United States), Sep 11, 2006 at 16:46

"Or may historians 50 years from now, find that the "checks and balances" of confrontation and appeasement together narrowed the communist room for maneuver?" You think? Actually, I suspect that 50 years from how historians will attribute the narrowing of the communist "room for maneuvering" to other factors, including, but not limited to the:

• comparison of a successful West Germany v. East Germany's failures in all but the Olympic Games
• economic success of the major Asian countries, most notably Japan, that emerged free of communism in the post WWII era
• advancement of the People's Republic of China, powered by a form of communism that adapted to a worldwide economy

The old Soviet Union died of social and economic arthritis. The world changed, and they didn't. "Confrontation and appeasement" was a sidebar.

"The toughness of their ("hardliners") rethoric leaves little room for winning the minds of muslims for liberal democracy at exactly the time when this seems most pressing. It also seems to play too much into the hands of those who recruit fresh terrorists from a pool of disenchanted muslim youngsters in Europe."

You seem to subscribe to the notion that all we in the West need to do to "win the minds" of those Muslims inclined to be anti-West is talk nice to them. And, that in being blunt and direct, we're helping recruit terrorits. Ask yourself this: Why are Muslim youth disenchanted with life in Europe? Why do they seem to assimilate better in the U.S? If our rhetoric is so counter productive, how come Europe has the greater assimilation problem?

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