"philo" wrote in message
news
On 12/09/2016 10:31 AM, dadiOH wrote:
"

It makes thinking about complex issues simpler and easier to keep score,
I guess. I had that reaction too. I mean we should be for freedom,
human rights, and to the extent these regimes oppress their people,'
we should be against that, but I'm not sure that automatically makes
them our enemies.

No reason it should IMO; however, doing so is good for some, namely, the
military and those who profit from war and turbulence. The government
too;
an enemy - real or perceived - allows them to implement things that would
not normally be allowed. Just ask Dubya.

We spent close to a half century with the country all riled up over the
godless, communist USSR who never did jack squat to us except -
possibly -
enable the allies to win WW2. During that tine the US was directly or
indirectly responsible for the deaths of millions of people all over the
world, all in the name of making the world safe for democracy, whether
they
wanted it or not.

Well, the USSR went away so we needed another enemy. We got it. We got
it
largely because of the US actions during the aforementioned half century.





Most of my life I've heard that Communists are evil. Communism is evil and
I've wondered about it.

I think it is a silly system and contra to the natural instincts of people
but I find nothing inherently evil in it. Or in socialism, capitalism or
any other "ism". It is good to question things.

Though a modified version of it seems to be working for China and Vietnam,
it certainly did not work out so well for USSR/ Russia, Cuba and N. Korea

Well, Stalin was certainly repressive, partly because power corrupts, partly
because of his nature and partly because he felt it necessary in order to
modernize and industrialize the country.

Re China/Vietnam, it is amazing what happens if we don't meddle. I imagine
Cuba would have done much better without the asinine 50 year+ embargo. N.
Korea will be stuck until their Oriental Pillsbury doughboy is gone.

As I eventually learned, Communism strictly in theory is not necessarily
evil but in practice the Communist governments are very evil.

Some are, some aren't. The same can be said for any form of government.

Possibly more than anything else, the Russian Winter is what defeated
Germany

Yes, Hitler made an error in not honoring his non-agression pact with the
USSR. Had he not done so, D-Day might well have turned out differently.
And, the fact that Stalin honored his promise to enter the war against Japan
within 3 months of defeating Germany did as much or more, IMO, as the bombs
to bring about the surrender of Japan. They were beat and knew it, wanted
to surrender but balked at the "non-conditional" part. If they continued
with the USSR in the war, they figured they were likely to lose Hokkaido to
the Russians..