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Originally Posted by detbuch
If the USSR failed because it was a completely failed government, that would contradict Spence's contention that it had a lot of power.
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Not at all, we all know the Soviet military machine was quite large. I've seen estimated figures as large as 330 B USD in 1988.
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As Spence says, the collapse was a confluence of many things. Would those things have gathered without the specter of the US, its promise of freedom and, yes, its military might as a perceived balance and guaranty to the revolutions in Eastern Europe?
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No, because as Duke says we've never had the high ground
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Or was it that the USSR failed because it lacked high ethical standards? If it had just cleaned up its ethics act, it wouldn't have needed power? They just didn't live up to the moral high ground of communism/socialism? Those systems do have a different ethic than free market systems.
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I think it was the wrong system at the wrong time. Clearly we're better but the only reason Russia is strong today is because their leadership saw the writing on the wall and acted accordingly. Putin's more recent and remarkable success is due to A) Russian nationalism and B) Really high oil revenues.
I'll get to your other blabble later...out of time.
-spence