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From: ignatz@ihuxx.UUCP (Dave Ihnat, Chicago, IL)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.followup
Subject: Re: Soviet Reaction to Pershings
Message-ID: <608@ihuxx.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 9-Dec-83 23:05:43 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxx.608
Posted: Fri Dec  9 23:05:43 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 11-Dec-83 00:39:21 EST
References: <399@reed.UUCP>, <5535@mcvax.UUCP> <3401@utzoo.UUCP>, <5551@mcvax.UUCP> <1671@ihuxf.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, Il
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		  "Therefore it	will be	a cold day in  hell  before
		 the  Russians	will  ever think about wasting that
		 many lives (or	even more) by starting	a  European
		 conflict.  And	they know damn well that they won't
		 gain a	bit neither by invading	Western	Europe	nor
		 by using their	nukes against it."

			    Piet Beertema

	---------------------

Ah, well.  I hate to step into this, because, being U. S. American, I
doubt that anything I say will have credibility.  Either I'll be a
snivelling bleeding-heart liberal, or a nuke-waving, baby-killing right winger;
and in any case, I'm from THAT country, that was in Viet Nam.  Well,
tough; I'm tired of being the bad guy in the world, and if that's not
the way we're viewed by everybody, than somebody tell me.  Because I'm
getting damned tired of it.

Our leaders are no saints.  They screwed royally in Viet Nam, where
*I'm* convinced that Ho Chi Minh was the man we should have backed,
Communist or not.  The whole MAD thing is.  And they seem to have a
penchant for getting our troops into situations where they can serve
as convenient targets for whoever has anything from a .22 to a SAM-1.

BUT.  I'm sure Piet is a nice guy, and would probably forgive me for
my nationality.  Because he sure is gullible and forgiving of the
Soviets.  And I say this from the country---and the part of the
world--where I can read anything from the Wall Street Journal to
Mother Jones. (I get both.)  I can--and have--read Pravda (although,
true...I have to trust the translators)  And, even suspiciously
discounting our own propagandists, I have to say that what I see
in their papers doesn't seem to corresond to even that which I can
verify personally.  Even worse than the National Enquirer.
Face it.  I don't trust the damn Russian government.
The people, sure, one on one.  The government, NFW.  Of course, it's
highly probable they wouldn't trust me, after what they've read.

I'm Czech by descent; maybe it's just inherited.  But I've at least one
friend who *had* to leave Czechoslovakia in '68.  I'm sure that you can
find some Afghans who would agree that the Soviets don't mind sending
people to fight and die, and to kill; how would Europe be different?
They like you, maybe?  I can understand their not trusting anyone in
the world.  Not only is this a fine, old Russian tradition, but people
have been traipsing through the various lands that make up the
USSR--or trying to--for centuries.  And don't forget which country
sent troops to support the Whites over the Reds in the Russian Civil
War.  (Three guesses, two don't count, and the North Vietnamese are
the tiebreaker vote).  But I don't forgive them their atrocities,
their avowed goal of burying ME, and their continuous agitation
throughout the world.  I don't know what would finally make them
happy, and lett them sit back and relax but I'm damn sure that I
wouldn't like it.  I'll still opt for our way of life, where, no
matter what improprieties may be pulled off, I know that in the end,
the government has to answer to the press and the public.  THAT's what
stopped Viet Nam, and that's what shut down Nixon's megalomania, to
name a couple of items.  And--I hope--that's what's going to change
this silly MAD policy to something more rational.

Finally, if I can be fired up like this--and I avoid this kind of
thing like the plague--I suspect that there are many who are getting
fed up.  And I regret that, because that leads to nationalism and
hard-line politics; neither of which are good or desirable today.

				Enough.
					
					Dave Ihnat
					ihuxx!ignatz