(word processor parameters LM=8, RM=75, TM=2, BM=2) Taken from KeelyNet BBS (214) 324-3501 Sponsored by Vangard Sciences PO BOX 1031 Mesquite, TX 75150 January 5, 1990 GORBASM.ASC -------------------------------------------------------------------- This article reminds us of the warning of two Russian friends about 3 years ago. They live in Houston and continue to have very close contacts with their friends back in Russia. From the very beginning of Glasnost, they told us to NOT BELIEVE A WORD OF IT. No matter what was said or done, their contacts say much of it is designed to lull the world into a sense of complacency. The true Glasnost objective was not known at that time but indications were that a major power shift was about to occur. At the time, we felt they might be bitter and thought their feelings might be slightly skewed. In light of recent events in Russia leading to major economic problems, splintering into multiple smaller countries and loss of the confidence of the people, we felt this article might be of interest. from the Dallas Times Herald, Thursday, January 3, 1991, page A-15 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Administration blinded by love for Gorbachev by Mona Charen Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has coined the term "Gorbasm" to capture the overwrought enthusiasm of some in the West for the Soviet leader. Here's a perfect example: Covering the resignation of Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze, a CNN reporter described Shevardnadze's anguished warning about a NEW DICTATORSHIP. But then, spectularly MISSING THE POINT, the reporter lamented that Shevardnadze's departure would leave Mikhail Gorbachev all alone to cope with this looming tyranny. Only someone blinded by "Gorbasm" would be capable of that kind of OBTUSENESS. Yet belief in Gorbachev - while everyday more difficult to justify as he stands athwart the democratic reformers, sidles up to the KGB, and RENEWS TIES to the suffociating Communist Party nomenklatura - pervades liberal (and Bush administration) thinking about the Soviet Union. Andrei Sakharov's widow, Elena Bonner, wears no such blinders. She explicitly warns that Gorbachev HAS EMBARKED ON A COURSE TOWARD DICTATORSHIP. "The coup," she told Wall Street Journal, "has ALREADY HAPPENED." He has amassed more power than any previous Soviet leader, and is undermining even the flimsy patchwork of law the USSR does maintain. By propping up Gorbachev with $1 BILLION in agricultural credits, Page 1 the Bush administration is casting its lot, AND OUR DOLLARS, with REFORM COMMUNISM rather TRUE REFORM. Why? Some argue that subsidies to the Soviets are a bribe for their continued cooperation in the gulf. Others believe that Secretary of State James Baker and President Bush are more worried about potential chaos in the USSR than about a potential return to Stalinist repression. If so, they are not alone. Media coverage of the situation in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union is dominated by concerns about the dark forces the collapse of communism may have unleashed. CBS reporter Tom Fenton's comments last week were typical: "We all thought liberal democracy was the natural successor to communism. But...it really is NATIONALISM. And NATIONALISM was the plague of the '30s and '20s." Others have devoted enormouse amounts of ink and air time to atavistic, anti-Semitic, and anti-democratic groups that have crawled out from under rocks in the Soviet Union - frequently confusing them with nationalists. Indeed, since the violence between Armenia and Azerbaijan last year, ALL STRIFE in the Soviet Union involving nationalism is CAST AS A PRIMITIVE BLOOD FEUD. Meanwhile, the real story is being obscured. The real story about both Eastern Europe and the USSR is not what the collapse of communism has UNLEASHED, but what IT HAS DESTROYED. It is the ECONOMIC CATASTROPHE left in communism's wake that is creating most (though not all) of the havoc in the East. And West. WE SHALL NOT BE IMMUNE. Indeed, after bleeding white with an arms race these past 45 years, the last kick in the teeth from the old communist empire will be the ECONOMIC BURDEN OF BAILING THEM OUT. The formerly-communist economies are PRIMITIVE BEYOND IMAGINATION. It is the ECONOMIC HIROSHIMA that communism has created, and NOT THE NATIONALISTIC PASSIONS it unsuccessfully tamped, that represents the most urgent threat to order and peace. And the WORST WAY TO RESPOND is by SUPPORTING European communism's last tribune : Mikhail Gorbachev. -------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have comments or other information relating to such topics as this paper covers, please upload to KeelyNet or send to the Vangard Sciences address as listed on the first page. Thank you for your consideration, interest and support. Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet -------------------------------------------------------------------- If we can be of service, you may contact Jerry at (214) 324-8741 or Ron at (214) 242-9346 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 2