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From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin )
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Peace through Friendship
Message-ID: <3576@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 25-Jul-84 16:50:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.3576
Posted: Wed Jul 25 16:50:25 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Jul-84 06:51:23 EDT
References: <2555@ut-sally.UUCP>, <963@ihuxi.UUCP>, <51@whuxl.UUCP>
Organization: Ballistics Research Lab
Lines: 51

>  The American and Soviet peoples have both been continually told by
>  their governments to think of the other side, the families, children,
>  and hard-working people they are threatening to kill, as "enemies".
>     
>  Tim Sevener
Sorry, but the above is nonsense. I will not speak of what the Soviets may have
told their people, but I have been constantly barraged over my entire life by
distinctions between the Soviet government/economic system and the peoples
of the USSR. Yes, they are different. Does this mean, though, that these
people are wonderful, virtuous souls who happen to be imprisoned by a
super-powerful oligarchy using vast numbers of secret police to maintain
their power?

No, it doesn't. Who do you think the secret police are recruited from,
anyway? The Soviet people, every man, woman, and child, are to at least
some degree responsible for the continued existence of their foul 
government and the continuation of its loathsome philosophy. I DO blame
them. They are continuing to try to live peaceful and uneventful lives,
as easily as possible, when instead they should be rising up in a wave
of righteous indignation, slaughtering all government officials, and
completely dismantling the organizational structure of the USSR and its
component states. Sure it would be hard -- their government has made sure
that they have few, if any, arms. It IS a case of bare hands and rocks
against tanks. Many, if not most, would die. It is still worth it, and
they should be expected to do it. 

The fact that the common soldiers obey orders instead of turning their
weapons on their officers and the KGB cadres, the fact that the factory 
workers continue to produce, even sloppily or shoddily, instead of
trashing their machines and burning down their factories, the fact that
the teachers teach, the doctors treat, and the dancers dance, means that
these people are supporting the Soviet system. Until they stop doing that,
they really ARE our enemies. 

When they do rebel (Hungary in 56, Czechoslovakia in 68), we have failed
to do what we should -- to immediately get them armaments to enable
any revolt to continue and expand. We are failing to get enough support
right now to the Afghans. We are either often our own enemies, or perhaps
the "commies-under-the-bed" folks have something in what they claim; in
any case, we have failed to encourage and support peoples under the 
Soviets to throw off their shackles.

So we are not blameless. But the man-in-the-street in Moscow is not
a saint, either. It is his cooperation that keeps the tanks moving
down the roads to Kabul, and keeps the Kremlin bosses in caviar and
vodka. 

If I could type in Greek, I'd do it here -- there is a saying that
translates as "Freedom or Death". There is no other honorable choice.

Will Martin