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Taken from KeelyNet BBS (214) 324-3501
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January 5, 1990
GORBASM.ASC
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This article reminds us of the warning of two Russian friends about
3 years ago. They live in Houston and continue to have very close
contacts with their friends back in Russia. From the very beginning
of Glasnost, they told us to NOT BELIEVE A WORD OF IT.
No matter what was said or done, their contacts say much of it is
designed to lull the world into a sense of complacency. The true
Glasnost objective was not known at that time but indications were
that a major power shift was about to occur.
At the time, we felt they might be bitter and thought their feelings
might be slightly skewed. In light of recent events in Russia
leading to major economic problems, splintering into multiple
smaller countries and loss of the confidence of the people, we felt
this article might be of interest.
from the Dallas Times Herald, Thursday, January 3, 1991, page A-15
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Administration blinded by love for Gorbachev
by Mona Charen
Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has coined the term "Gorbasm" to
capture the overwrought enthusiasm of some in the West for the
Soviet leader.
Here's a perfect example: Covering the resignation of Soviet foreign
minister Eduard Shevardnadze, a CNN reporter described
Shevardnadze's anguished warning about a NEW DICTATORSHIP. But
then, spectularly MISSING THE POINT, the reporter lamented that
Shevardnadze's departure would leave Mikhail Gorbachev all alone to
cope with this looming tyranny.
Only someone blinded by "Gorbasm" would be capable of that kind of
OBTUSENESS. Yet belief in Gorbachev - while everyday more difficult
to justify as he stands athwart the democratic reformers, sidles up
to the KGB, and RENEWS TIES to the suffociating Communist Party
nomenklatura - pervades liberal (and Bush administration) thinking
about the Soviet Union.
Andrei Sakharov's widow, Elena Bonner, wears no such blinders. She
explicitly warns that Gorbachev HAS EMBARKED ON A COURSE TOWARD
DICTATORSHIP. "The coup," she told Wall Street Journal, "has
ALREADY HAPPENED." He has amassed more power than any previous
Soviet leader, and is undermining even the flimsy patchwork of law
the USSR does maintain.
By propping up Gorbachev with $1 BILLION in agricultural credits,
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the Bush administration is casting its lot, AND OUR DOLLARS, with
REFORM COMMUNISM rather TRUE REFORM.
Why? Some argue that subsidies to the Soviets are a bribe for
their continued cooperation in the gulf. Others believe that
Secretary of State James Baker and President Bush are more worried
about potential chaos in the USSR than about a potential return to
Stalinist repression.
If so, they are not alone. Media coverage of the situation in
Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union is dominated by concerns about
the dark forces the collapse of communism may have unleashed. CBS
reporter Tom Fenton's comments last week were typical:
"We all thought liberal democracy was the natural successor to
communism. But...it really is NATIONALISM. And NATIONALISM was
the plague of the '30s and '20s."
Others have devoted enormouse amounts of ink and air time to
atavistic, anti-Semitic, and anti-democratic groups that have
crawled out from under rocks in the Soviet Union - frequently
confusing them with nationalists.
Indeed, since the violence between Armenia and Azerbaijan last year,
ALL STRIFE in the Soviet Union involving nationalism is CAST AS A
PRIMITIVE BLOOD FEUD.
Meanwhile, the real story is being obscured. The real story about
both Eastern Europe and the USSR is not what the collapse of
communism has UNLEASHED, but what IT HAS DESTROYED.
It is the ECONOMIC CATASTROPHE left in communism's wake that is
creating most (though not all) of the havoc in the East.
And West. WE SHALL NOT BE IMMUNE. Indeed, after bleeding white
with an arms race these past 45 years, the last kick in the teeth
from the old communist empire will be the ECONOMIC BURDEN OF BAILING
THEM OUT. The formerly-communist economies are PRIMITIVE BEYOND
IMAGINATION.
It is the ECONOMIC HIROSHIMA that communism has created, and NOT THE
NATIONALISTIC PASSIONS it unsuccessfully tamped, that represents the
most urgent threat to order and peace.
And the WORST WAY TO RESPOND is by SUPPORTING European communism's
last tribune : Mikhail Gorbachev.
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Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson
Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet
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