Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/3/84; site talcott.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!whuxl!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!gjk From: gjk@talcott.UUCP (Greg Kuperberg) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Re: Star Wars (following a discussion on can.ai) Message-ID: <387@talcott.UUCP> Date: Thu, 4-Apr-85 09:42:40 EST Article-I.D.: talcott.387 Posted: Thu Apr 4 09:42:40 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 5-Apr-85 05:25:49 EST References: <1505@dciem.UUCP> Organization: Harvard Lines: 29 > The US, UK and USSR put aside strong animosities in 1939-45 to deal with > an external threat, and I see no reason to believe that they would > not do it again in the face of a threat external to the planet. You have a serious historical error. From September 1939 to June 1941 the USSR was an Axis power. On June 22 Germany invaded the Soviet Union, and it was on that day that the Russians switched from being part of the external threat to "putting aside its strong animosities". The US entered WWII in December 1941 when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. It was Germany that declared war on the U.S., not vice versa, although admittedly the US was very supportive of the Allies before then. In fact, on June 21, the UK was the only country at war with Germany. > If this assumption is so, then what prevents us from working strenuously > together to avoid self-annihilation? Is it that we don't all agree > that the threat exists? I find that hard to believe, but I cannot > come up with another explanation. > > Martin Taylor Because we fear that the Soviet Union will do the equivalent with nuclear weapons that they did with Germany in 1939: Bargain away the security of the civilized world for their own temporary safety. -- Greg Kuperberg harvard!talcott!gjk "No Marxist can deny that the interests of socialism are higher than the interests of the right of nations to self-determination." -Lenin, 1918