Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!uflorida!novavax!proxftl!twwells!bill
From: bill@twwells.uucp (T. William Wells)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Soviet Access to Usenet
Message-ID: <213@twwells.uucp>
Date: 27 Nov 88 07:34:25 GMT
References: <7649@well.UUCP> <8081@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <17651@gatech.edu> <8114@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <268@lloyd.camex.uucp>
Reply-To: bill@twwells.UUCP (T. William Wells)
Organization: None, Ft. Lauderdale
Lines: 45

In article <268@lloyd.camex.uucp> kent@lloyd.UUCP (Kent Borg) writes:
: Saving money: Why are we so posessed with the notion that it is in our
: interest to try to get the Soviets to waste their money?  Why are we
: bent on this notion that economic warfare is good?

Mostly because many people believe, on the strength of the Soviet's
own pronouncements of their intentions, that if they had the
resources, they'd use those resources to make *real* war on us.
Denying them a little money (specifically, foreign exchange, which
they can spend on acquiring our, more effective, resources) means
denying them a little of those resources and thus lessens the
likelyhood of their making *real* war on us.

: I think that we are better off with a Soviet Union that is fat and
: happy with the status quo than we would be with a threatened Soviet
: Union that feels backed in a corner, that it has nothing to loose.
: Whether you think the Soviets are people or just gruff bears, you
: still don't want to corner them and give them nothing to loose.

This is an old argument, which doesn't hold much water when one
considers that the Soviets have chosen their paths because they want
to run the world. (Their stated intention.) Can you say Afghanistan?
And do you have the vaguest idea why they are pulling out? Try
economics.

: Before they they push the button, let them first contemplate the
: serious prospect of USENET withdrawl.

This, and its brethren, would be meaningful if the Party thought that
the West is essential to their well-being.  But they don't.  (I don't
think. Perhaps they are wising up, in the light of the relative
performance of their economy?)

: Pointer: If you _really_ want to undermine the Soviet system,
: introduce something as uncontrollable and anarchic as USENET.  We
: shouldn't be fighting to _prevent_ a USENET feed, we should be
: fighting to _install_ one

Now here, I agree wholeheartedly. A Usenet feed can only undermine
their political system, while only saving them a trivial amount of
money.

---
Bill
{uunet|novavax}!proxftl!twwells!bill