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Post by jdredd on Jul 30, 2020 15:25:42 GMT -5
www.nationalreview.com/2020/07/trumps-unconscionable-equivalence-of-american-and-russian-aid-to-afghan-jihadists/"I’m a buff on the American support to the Afghan mujahideen in their jihad against the Red Army. I wrote about it at length in Willful Blindness, my memoir about prosecuting terrorists, the most prominent of whom had fought against the Russians and recruited Muslims around the world to join the jihad. In convicting the Blind Sheikh and his confederates, we proved the scale of the CIA support, and how it was matched and distributed by Islamic regimes. There is no doubt that it was decisive in the chain of events that led to Moscow’s humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989. That was a major domino in the collapse of the Soviet Union less than three years later.Of course, in our support for the Afghan mujahideen can also be found the seeds of global jihadism’s rise and the emergence of the Taliban. Nevertheless, the demise of the USSR is among history’s greatest triumphs of liberty. Naturally, Putin, the former KGB agent, continues to rue it as the 20th century’s “greatest geopolitical catastrophe.” Consequently, when it was first reported a few weeks back that Putin’s regime may have been paying bounties to the Taliban for killing American troops, my instant reaction, as noted in this column, was: Of course the Russians would fund Taliban attacks on Americans." Here is a NR columnist echoing Osama Bin Laden's claim that he was the big author of the Soviet Union's collapse.
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Post by jdredd on Sept 3, 2020 18:00:54 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2020/09/01/books/review/the-quiet-americans-scott-anderson.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepage"Scott Anderson’s enthralling new history of early Cold War espionage takes its title from Greene’s classic — and shares much of its disillusionment. Anderson, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and author of several books, including “Lawrence in Arabia,” follows the story of four C.I.A. operatives — Michael Burke, Edward Lansdale, Peter Sichel and Frank Wisner — from their heady early exploits through their government’s ultimate betrayal of its own idealism. Anderson, whose own father once helped create foreign paramilitary squads as an adviser to the Agency for International Development, casts his characters’ narrative as a tragedy, both personal and national. After a decade of flawed postwar spy games, by the mid-1950s much of the world had come to see the United States as just “one more empire,” Anderson writes, “one that lied and stole and invaded” like the others." Who won the Cold War? Maybe nobody.
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Post by jdredd on Mar 29, 2021 18:18:54 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2021/03/29/opinion/biden-china.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=OpEd%20Columnists "Now we are entering the Second Cold War, this time with China. That’s the takeaway from this month’s U.S.-China summit in Anchorage, in which both sides made clear that they had not only clashing interests but also incompatible values. Secretary of State Antony Blinken bluntly accused China of threatening “the rules-based order that maintains global stability.” Yang Jiechi, his Chinese counterpart, replied that the U.S. had to “stop advancing its own democracy in the rest of the world.” "China’s leaders (including the ostensibly more liberal ones) have always been ferocious in their repression of spiritual and religious movements — whether it’s Falun Gong, Islam, Tibetan Buddhism or independent Christian rches — because religion cultivates a moral conscience independent of political control. But moral conscience is not something any government in history has been able to compel, which is why the West was wise when it adopted the principle of religious liberty. And Joe Biden should underscore this essential difference with Xi at every opportunity, including by inviting the Dalai Lama to the White House, as well as other Chinese faith leaders. None of this is to say that containing Beijing won’t also require actively building alliances, exerting economic pressure and preserving a powerful military deterrent. But as we imagine how we might bring a Second Cold War to a peaceful end, it helps to consider how China’s regime could become a partner in its own undoing." Here is Bret counting on religion to "win" this manufactured new Cold War with China. Which is behind all of the "outrage" over the Uighurs. He even embraces the creepy Falun Gong. He probably reads The Epoch Times. I'd say I've see this movie before but this time we might not "win". In fact, I wonder what it might mean to "lose" this time.
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Post by jdredd on Apr 29, 2021 0:28:14 GMT -5
www.newsmax.com/ralphbenko/jack-kemp-china-peter-meijer-research-and-development/2021/04/27/id/1019152/"As I wrote at Forbes in How Jack Kemp and Charlie Wilson Saved the World, Jack Kemp pioneered supply-side economics, ignoring taunts of "voodoo economics" from establishment Republicans and "trickle down" from establishment Democrats to end stagflation. Kemp thereby put American back onto the road to equitable prosperity. And Charlie Wilson, who had seniority but no chairmanships, working with Joanne King Herring, crusaded to fund the Afghani mujahideen to defeat the Soviet Army thus bringing victory in the Cold War." It still amuses me to read all the theories of how, why, and by whom the Cold War ended. This one seems to agree with Osama Bin Laden that his mujahideen defeated the Soviets and ended it.
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Post by jdredd on Jul 17, 2021 1:24:48 GMT -5
During the Cold War, anti-Communism was used to unite Americans against a common foe. Now it looks like it is being used by some Americans to divide the country into bad guys and good guys.
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Post by jdredd on Oct 1, 2021 21:22:49 GMT -5
I’m listening a talk on a website called “Academy of Ideas”, and they quote Vaclav Havel giving credit to some Czech rock band who refused to be silenced with bringing down Czech Communism. Is it true? I have no idea, but it’s a new candidate for getting credit for the end of the Cold War. They join a long list.
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Post by jdredd on Dec 21, 2021 15:37:27 GMT -5
Here’s from a Newsmax article today:
“Instead, the U.S. maintained a mighty military, built successful alliances with friendly nations, and eventually drove the USSR into bankruptcy when its communist policies predictably failed to deliver sustainable economic growth.”
I collect theories on the end of the Cold War, and here is one spin, probably the most popular. What is debatable to me is how much credit the USA should get. Why do I care? I guess because I lived through it and had my own impressions, and I wonder how valid they were in hindsight. I tend to put less weight on US military might and more on Russian reformers, but we will see what historians will say.
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Post by jdredd on Jul 1, 2022 21:34:57 GMT -5
It seems tome that Germany wanted to refight the Great War after their defeat in 1918, and did so starting in 1939. In much the same way, Russia is striking back after its humiliation in 1989 by invading Ukraine. Will it accept defeat at the hands of NATO again?
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Post by jdredd on Sept 11, 2022 12:17:31 GMT -5
Once again, it looks like Russia cannot compete with the wealth of the West. And Putin seems to have misjudged the will of his country to fight this war. How far is he willing to go to not be a loser? A cornered wild animal is a dangerous one.
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Post by jdredd on Jan 5, 2023 13:08:25 GMT -5
Some commentors are now saying that the Cold War never really ended. They may be on to something. The enthusiasm that America and Germany are showing to help Ukrainians kill Russians supports that thesis,. Germany is debating sending Ukraine panzers, but Western Europe’s attempts to tame the Russian bear have not gone so well in the past. Do they really expect to be able to bring about a submissive Russia with war? I guess so.
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Post by jdredd on Mar 24, 2023 2:07:10 GMT -5
The theory that the Cold War never ended seems to be getting more credence with the new alliance of Russia and China. The Russians don’t seem to mind the Chineses are Commies. We are driving them together.
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Post by jdredd on Mar 27, 2023 1:54:30 GMT -5
With China and Russia drifting toward an alliance (good going, Joe), is this Cold War II or just a continuation of the old Cold War? Doesn’t matter, it’s just semantics.
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Post by jdredd on Mar 31, 2023 1:47:12 GMT -5
With the new Cold War, is the West out to humiliate Russia again? Maybe it won’t end like the first one.
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Post by jdredd on May 25, 2023 2:19:44 GMT -5
Byline in the NYT: “ China and Russia, Targets at G7 Summit, Draw Closer to Fend Off West”. America drove a wedge between Russia and China to “win” the first Cold War. I guess we are so awesome we don’t need to do it this time.
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Post by jdredd on Jun 27, 2023 9:32:56 GMT -5
From the NYT: “ In polls, Americans’ views of China are starting to resemble their views of the Soviet Union decades ago. That could make it harder to mend ties.” Looks like Millennials, et all, are as dumb as their parents and grandparents, buying a new Cold War with a demonized China. Who wins? The same folks who won the first Cold War, Boeing, General Dynanics, Raytheon etc. etc. but maybe the results of this one will not be so satisfying. As always, less and less my problem every day. And young folks don’t see to worry, so screw ‘em.
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