<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1106" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Justin wrote:</FONT></DIV> <DIV>> That's always true, Luke. Since the future is unwritten, it always remains to be seen.<BR></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I was trying to make a closely related (though far less vacuous) point: the fall of the Soviet Union might be a necessary means (or, perhaps, the best sufficient means) towards what I expect will be a drastically improved standard of living for people in the FSU within the next half century.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV>>  Therefore that statement is unhelpful and no answer to anything. It was predictable -- I and </DIV> <DIV>> others predicted (not quite accurately in detail, but accurate enough) -- that the collapse of </DIV> <DIV>> central authority in the FSU would be disaster for the people of the FSU...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>In the short term, it has been.  One need only look at the decline in life expectancy for Russian males to find <SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">adequate</SPAN> support for that assertion.  But, in the long run, if a market economy is built in the FSU that resembles those of any of the first-world states (e.g. Germany, the US, Japan), the people will benefit to a great degree.    </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>> US with power to engage ina lmsot unlimited imperialism. </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Look, the very worst US foreign policy was directly inspired by its rivalry with the Soviet Union.  Even if you grant that the interventions of the past decade have done nothing more than prematurely end the lives of 100,000+ people (which I don't believe), they still pale in comparison to those instances where the cold war became hot.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>--Luke</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV></BODY></HTML>