From: kurkku@hassuserveri.fi   
      
   "David Friedman"  kirjoitti   
   viestissä:ddfr-9C2517.08331622082008@CA.NEWS.VERIO.NET...   
   > In article ,   
   > Anton  wrote:   
   >   
   >> James A. Donald kirjoitti:   
   >> > David Friedman   
   >>   
   >> >> Does that explain the timing? It had been not working   
   >> >> as a socio-economic model for a very long time before   
   >> >> it fell. The point at which its failure resulted in   
   >> >> mass starvation was many decades before the collapse.   
   >> >   
   >> > My guess is that Gorbachev's decision to allow people to   
   >> > doubt and criticize had a lot to do with the fall of   
   >> > communism in Russia, but military defeat had a lot to do   
   >> > with the satellite countries dumping communism.   
   >>   
   >> Communism did not suffer a military defeat, let alone that it fell   
   >> because of such. The unarmed civilian pupulations1 defeated communism -   
   >> not armies with guns.   
   >   
   > The Soviet Union suffered a pretty direct military defeat in Afghanistan   
   > (as the U.S. did in Vietnam, of course). It also lost some of its proxy   
   > conflicts elsewhere.   
   >   
   > How important that was to its fall I don't know. I would suggest that   
   > the immediate cause was both the unarmed civilian populations rising   
   > against it and the armed military population being unwilling, or   
   > believed unwilling, to use its arms against the civilian population that   
   > was doing the rising.   
   >   
   > --   
   > http://www.daviddfriedman.com/ http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/   
   > Author of _Harald_, a fantasy without magic.   
   > Published by Baen, paperback in bookstores now   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)