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[–]Alan_Crowe 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I understood the Cold War as an ideological conflict. The Warsaw Pact was set to invade Western Europe because it was the right thing to do. Communism wasn't just a historical inevitability, it was a moral imperative. And if you took an other view, you had to be ready to defend yourself. So we made NATO and prepared to defend ourselves.

Then Communism collapsed and the Berlin wall came down and it was all over. Maybe there was a case for not shutting down NATO immediately; what had so suddenly collapsed might unexpectedly revive.

Thirty years on from the fall of the Berlin wall, and the defeated ideology is dead and forgotten in Russia. We can stop worrying and convert our swords into ploughshares.

Strangely the US wants to keep fighting the Cold War, even though it won. This is making me re-examine my life. Was my side also bad guys; out to conquer, and not just concerned with self-defense?

[–]dsolimano 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I think there was a time when we were actually advancing the cause of freedom to some extent, while making it worse in other places - but once we won in Europe, the entire bureaucratic-military-industrial complex needed to continue to exist to keep getting paid.

If Germany wants to be allies with Russia, I don't see any reason why we shouldn't withdraw our troops and with them a nice day.