From: ibshambat@gmail.com   
      
   In 1985, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union elected a noble-minded leader   
   named Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev promised to make the Soviet Union more   
   humane and democratic. His reforms - glasnost (political openness) and   
   perestroika (economic    
   reconstruction) - became world-known. He signed a nuclear disarmament   
   agreement with Ronald Reagan and allowed the satellite countries in Eastern   
   Europe to secede from the Communist Bloc. In 1991, the communist hardliners   
   deposed Gorbachev and put him    
   under house arrest. The people poured into the Red Square, and the hardliners   
   sent in tanks. The military however refused the orders to shoot at the people,   
   and the Soviet Union was no more.   
      
   In 1989, a large group of people in China poured into the Tiannamnen Square   
   demanding democratic reforms. The hardliners sent in tanks, and the military   
   obeyed their orders to shoot. China remained as it was and still remains as it   
   was. And yet America,    
   and the rest of the West, continue to treat China and the Chinese respectfully   
   even as they continue to spit on Russia. And my question is, what signal does   
   this send to the rest of the world?   
      
   One country's leadership and the military make a noble and rightful decision,   
   and their country becomes the toilet of the world. Another country's   
   leadership and military make a barbaric decision, and the country continues to   
   grow in power and wealth.    
   This is not only bad ethics; it also is bad politics.   
      
   Just how bad? Well let's look at Iran. In 1997, a moderate leader named   
   Mohammad Khatami was elected the President of Iran. The Guardian Council had   
   sucess in thwarting his reform agenda by saying that he was the Gorbachev of   
   Iran. Iran after that was    
   led by a madman who was aggressively pursuing nuclear weapons. The hardliners   
   in Iran came back by floating before the Iranian people the spectre of Iran   
   going the way of the Soviet Union.   
      
   There are many in America and elsewhere who claim that they won the Cold War.   
   They are wrong. The Soviet Union could have gone on indefinitely, as have the   
   much smaller Cuba and North Korea. Instead the leadership and the military of   
   the Soviet Union    
   made rightful and noble decisions. And the reward for that rightful and noble   
   choice has been the country being plundered and its people being treated like   
   trash.   
      
   This is something that needs to be said in any number of circles in order to   
   put matters into perspective. To reward noble and rightful choices with   
   plunder and ugly behavior creates a perverse set of incentives in which any   
   villain can stay in power by    
   referring to people what happened when the Soviet leadership went on a   
   rightful course. Russia, China and places such as Iran, will continue to   
   exist. What matters is the form in which they exist and what it means for   
   their people as much as what it    
   means for America and its allies. The policy regarding these places must be   
   reworked to incentivize noble and righteous behavior and disincentivize   
   barbarism. One can start by recognizing the goodwill and righteousness that   
   had been shown by Russian    
   leadership and its military and treating Russia and Russian people with   
   respect.   
      
   Ilya Shambat   
   https://sites.google.com/site/ilyashambatthought   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)