Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ut-sally.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!ut-sally!riddle
From: riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Re: Reagan's joke
Message-ID: <81@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 25-Oct-84 09:35:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.81
Posted: Thu Oct 25 09:35:26 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 27-Oct-84 06:06:44 EDT
References: <362@tjalk.UUCP> <2752@ucbcad.UUCP>
Organization: U. of Tx. at Houston-in-the-Hills
Lines: 38

>> From faustus@ucbcad.UUCP Tue Oct 23 22:15:08 1984
>> 
>> Reagan may be many things, but you are really being absurd in accusing him
>> of actually desiring a nuclear war. Tell me, what sort of sentiments do
>> you think would motivate anybody to want such a thing? A desire to commit
>> suicide in the most dramatic way possible, maybe, but I doubt that Reagan
>> wants to do this... He's had four years to destroy the world and hasn't
>> managed it yet, has he?

Reagan may not "desire" a nuclear war, but he and his backers have displayed a
dismaying tendency to believe that nuclear war is inevitable and/or wouldn't
be so bad if it happened.  His recent denials in the debates to the contrary,
there is far too much talk in Reagan's circles of "winning" a nuclear war with
the Soviet Union, an impossibility by any sane definition of the word "win."
He and his administration refuse to act as if they really believe that nuclear
war is suicide.  Instead they talk about whether or not everybody will have
"enough shovels."

Furthermore, even if Reagan and his friends don't actually want to fight and
win a nuclear war, they are downright eager to fight and win an arms race.
Ronald Reagan is the only president since the nuclear era began who has
achieved absolutely  n o  arms limitation agreements with the Soviet Union.
He hasn't even made a convincing show of trying.  Because of the John Wayne
posturing which limits his thinking and his happiness at the chance to
stimulate the military production portion of the economy at the expense of
everything else, Reagan is blind to the fact that the Soviets will no more
negotiate from a position of weakness than we will, and that many of his
favorite weapons are so destabilizing that they make a nuclear war more likely
and future verifiable arms control next to impossible.

The argument that "he's had four years to destroy the world and hasn't managed
it yet" is meaningless.  In four years he has managed to take us several steps
down the road toward nuclear destruction without even the least bit of
foot-dragging.  Whether the man wants nuclear war or not is immaterial; that's
what he's working to give us.

--- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle