Mikhail Gorbachev: Bush's recipe for disaster

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1992957,00.html

A watershed in international relations has occurred in recent months. Indeed, the past year may well have seen the end of an entire era in world affairs - the post-cold war period of unilateralism and missed opportunities.

When the cold war ended, avenues opened up for progress toward a better world. Major powers, particularly the United States, the Soviet Union and China, were working constructively together in the United Nations security council. International conflicts, including those in Angola, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Cambodia, were brought to an end. Nuclear and conventional arms control agreements were concluded, and democratic changes were under way in dozens of countries in Asia, Latin America and central and eastern Europe.

The Charter of Paris for a New Europe, signed in 1990, marked the beginning of a process that was expected to lead to a new, peaceful and democratic world order. But the movement in that direction soon stalled. The break-up of the Soviet Union was followed by changes in the political elites of the United States and other countries. The Charter of Paris was forgotten. Instead of moving towards a new security architecture, it was decided to rely on the tools inherited from the cold war. The United States - and the west as a whole - succumbed to the "winner's complex".-snip-

Not the senile Al Qaeda/Contra/Hussein-financing goofball Reagan.

the then-Soviet Union if there hadn't been somebody there who was willing to stop standing in the way.

Maybe reagan pitched (MAYBE), but he wouldn't have accomplished squat if there weren't a VERY capable catcher at the receiving end of the flying ball. Gorbachev doesn't get NEARLY enough credit, and frankly, I think it was MOSTLY Gorby who was responsible. NOTHING would have happened to open things up in the then-USSR were it not for someone with a little enlightenment and an open mind and modern viewpoint to get things going.

We were talking a few days ago here about how ONE person can make a difference...

so glad I had the portunity to hear him speak in person, at a school board convention no less

Everyone I knew in Europe attributed the reunification to Gorbi. Years later, when I moved back home to America, I was stunned that the Americans all attributed it to Reagan. I couldn't believe the level of America's narcissism. Even liberals were saying Reagan brought an end to the Cold War.

Maybe it seemed that way from across the globe. But being there in the center of it all...nobody I know was thinking about Reagan, EVERYONE spoke of Gorbachev.

He is greatly loved by so many!!!

was the utterance of a snappy line at the right time. a meme so false, but got so much mileage.

Standing just a few yards from the man. Wow. Getting there was tense. You had to have an invitation and passport. There were multiple checkpoints and the speaking area was cordoned off for miles in a radius. Police were brought in from all over West Germany to assist the Berlin police. Then, after the multiple checkpoints, you were put on a military bus with armed guards. They drove to within walking distance of the speech location. Then there were more checkpoints.

Once you got in, every other person looked like they belonged to the secret service. They lookied straight out of Men in Black. Armed guards were perched EVERYWHERE, It was creepy. Actually, the whole thing was a media event. They made it look like thousands of people were there, but that just wasn't the case. Maybe there were a thousand, but almost everyone was with the American military because germans didn't have easy access to the tickets.

Years later, when the Clinton's came the atmosphere was totally different. Of course the Cold War had ended. There were street performers, animal-baloon guys, kids, people picnicing in the grass, everyone was smiling. It seemed as though all of re-unified Berlin was there. It was so festive! The contrast was amazing.

That's what they hired him for.