tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10829781.post7999134289812529272..comments2023-07-05T11:26:53.498+01:00Comments on A Big Stick and a Small Carrot: The Russians are ComingGarryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08188217045700587288noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10829781.post-84564797572256271042007-02-14T13:52:00.000+00:002007-02-14T13:52:00.000+00:00Thanks rick.ff, I do disagree with you on this one...Thanks rick.<BR/><BR/>ff, I do disagree with you on this one. This post was the result of a couple of conversations I've had recently and was party about challenging my own view of the Cold War.<BR/><BR/>The first point is the one rick has mentioned. Even if the Cold War was better than today's circumstances, I don't think a return to that would be progress. I believe that reform of the UN and other multilateral institutions offers the possibility of real progress. <BR/><BR/>The second point I'd make is that the Cold War was actually a lot hotter than the name suggests. Proxy wars between the two blocks did enormous damage to people in the developing world.<BR/><BR/>If we take Vietnam as an example, millions of South East Asians died as a result of U.S. Cold War policy. Back then, the U.S. military carpet bombed North Vietnamese cities, something no longer acceptable in today's climate (much to the disgust of Shotgun Cheney). In many ways, the "war" on terror can be seen as an attempt by the U.S. govt to create conditions similar to the Cold War. For the likes of Cheney, those were the good old days when they could really let rip with their machinery of death.<BR/><BR/>There was stability of a sort during the Cold War for us in the West but things looked very different in the developing world. The damaging effects of the Cold War are still with us today in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.<BR/><BR/>In my conversations, I realised that there was a danger that I might easily be tempted to gloss over all of that with a layer of nostalgia and this post resulted from that.Garryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08188217045700587288noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10829781.post-59564305691649296212007-02-13T22:27:00.000+00:002007-02-13T22:27:00.000+00:00Great post, back patting is in order. Here's to a ...Great post, back patting is in order. Here's to a future that isn't just empires warily manouvering around each other.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com