Quote:
Originally Posted by roachboy
i'll have more to say about all this later, but for the time being:
if you assume a "new cold war" is now a possibility--and a cold war is a matter of pure logistics---then would it not be a form of diplomatic "solution" for putin in particular and for the united states more generally?
a "cold war" plays to the benefit of weak authoritarian regimes, yes? what could be better than a situation which provides stabilization of power relations and an Enemy to provide the pretext for it? and after 7 years of a "war on terror" the americans are not in a position to complain about the move...
also, a "cold war" is great for business, particularly if your economy is set up around an extensive military-based patron/client system.
but this is all cynical, yes?
on the other hand, how else to parse what the bush people were thinking in offering this deal to poland in the first place?
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This takes us back to Reagan.
What Reagan did was out spend the USSR, but in the process he also cut all that "expensive spending", think the ten thousand dollar screwdriver.
What that did was hurt our own companies and thus we lost Boeing, Marrion Martin and so on, even GE, the automakers and appliance companies felt the squeeze.
When Reagan stopped overpaying, these manufacturers started losing money and raising rices just leads to raising wages not necessarily profits.Thus some went under, some merged, some are on the verge of bankruptcy and some shipped everything overseas.
Our economy was based on our military spending, right or wrong it was. Reagan never took the initiative to move our economy into a different direction so the military cuts wouldn't be as harmful.
That brings us to today. Our economy is still in the shitter and getting worse, patrtiotism and our domestic situation is turbulent. To some the only answer to bring the country back up without it declining further is to create a "boogeyman". Terrorism didn't work. But the "Cold War" did very effectively and will again.
So, it begins. We start pumping back into the military, the economy booms again.
Now, this is also just a band aid and will not be effective forever. This time around, hopefully, they learned a lesson and diversify so that the economy isn't just built on military spending.