The assertion by Carol C. that defeating communism was a mistake because it lead to a lousy economy in Russia.    My guess is that people in Poland and Eastern Europe would not agree with Carol C. as they preferred communist rule and the murder of millions and millions of people.   I have to admit, I never thought of that angle before.

You're misquoting me, Larry K. Or at least, you're trying to insert a different meaning into what I said, than the one I intended.

I am not saying that the people of the former Soviet Union prefer/preferred communist rule, and I most certainly am not saying they preferred the murder of millions and millions of people. You are the only one who is saying that.

Toward the END of the Socialist regime, it was already pretty obvious that democracy was coming and socialism was on its way out in the Soviet Union. Gorbachev knew that in order for the country to have any stability and any viability as a democracy, the transition needed to happen slowly. And this has proved to be true. There is no real democracy in what is now the former Soviet Union. There is only a particularly vicious form of criminally organized kleptocracy, and this is precisely because of the way in which the transition from the Socialist regime to the present system was implemented. The reason given by the US for wanting to see the end of the Soviet Union was humanitarian concern for the people of the region, and for stability and safety from the Soviet Union's nuclear arsenal.

But the people of the former Soviet Union are suffering every bit as much under the present system as they were under the system as it was during Gorbachev's time in power, if not more so, and there is no stability with regard to nuclear weapons. The breakup of the Soviet Union and the lack of jobs and the lack of access to the basic necessities of life has caused a big problem for people who want to keep nuclear technology and nuclear material out of the hands of terrorists, because desperate people are willing to sell these things to the highest bidders.

It would have been much smarter to have let Gorbachev make the needed changes gradually so that the Soviet Union could have become a real democracy instead of the festering pit of organized crime that it has become.

Or maybe people like Larry K just don't think very highly of Democracy in general, and prefer systems in which the most corrupt and ruthless people, who don't give a shit about humanitarian concerns, get to run the show.