CDZ AP Interview: Gorbachev says US was short-sighted on Soviets

[there4eyeM]

Monumental failure on the part of the West at the period of the U.S.S.R. meltdown. An extraordinary opportunity was wasted by old-way thinking and thinkers. Every scenario for war had been played and planned for, but none of the geniuses planned for peace. We are extremely lucky that some die hard ideologues in the Kremlin didn't decide to take the world with them as they went down, or that some nut didn't try to push things along in Russia by committing an act of aggression at the wrong moment.

Gorbachev and his human realism saved us all from ourselves.

 

[MisterBeale]

When the time comes for the US to revert back to the articles of confederation, I hope the Russians and the Commonwealth of Independent States won't be so short sighted.

 

[there4eyeM]

'Gorby' will be treated very well by history. His contemporary 'leaders' in other countries will pale by comparison.

 

[jwoodie]

I do not trust the Russians, but neither do I see intractable strategic differences between them and the United States. I think the old policy of containing communism no longer applies. How is the economic impoverishment of Russia beneficial to us? As to foreign affairs, their interest in securing their naval base in Crimea is understandable. However, its recognition should be conditioned on nonintervention in the affairs of demilitarized Ukraine, Kaliningrad and the Baltic countries (a la Finland). They don't like guns pointed at their borders any more than we do.

 

[MisterBeale]

I do not trust the Russians, but neither do I see intractable strategic differences between them and the United States. I think the old policy of containing communism no longer applies. How is the economic impoverishment of Russia beneficial to us? As to foreign affairs, their interest in securing their naval base in Crimea is understandable. However, its recognition should be conditioned on nonintervention in the affairs of demilitarized Ukraine, Kaliningrad and the Baltic countries (a la Finland). They don't like guns pointed at their borders any more than we do.

Why do you not trust the Russians vis-à-vis the American people, any more than say the Indians, the Israelis, the Brazilians, the Chinese, or the British?

 

[MisterBeale]

'Gorby' will be treated very well by history. His contemporary 'leaders' in other countries will pale by comparison.

I believe Reagan and Gorby both were responsible for alleviating world tensions and ushering in a golden age of peace and prosperity that lasted a good thirty years.

When Trump says, "Let's make America great," in some ways, I think he longs for a time when the whole world was less confrontational, less malevolent, with healthy market competition and cooperation being the rule, rather than war and espionage being an acceptable fall back for nations. Maybe the establishment is immovable from it's position, who knows.

 

[jwoodie]

Why do you not trust the Russians vis-à-vis the American people, any more than say the Indians, the Israelis, the Brazilians, the Chinese, or the British?

The Russians have an unpralleled record of diplomatic duplicity over the past 100 years. That being said, I do not trust any country to put our interests before theirs. However, similarity of interests is often an indicator of reliability. Even so, trust but verify.