From: Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Date: Thu Aug 01 2002 - 12:02:03 MDT
>From: "John K Clark" <jonkc@att.net>
>"Charles Hixson" <charleshixsn@earthlink.net> Wrote:
>StarWars defeated the USSR.
>I doubt that very much. The leaders of the USSR were not very
>smart but I doubt they were so dumb as to panic and spend
>themselves into bankruptcy over a silly idea like Star Wars. I'll
>bet the percentage of GNP spent on weapons was considerably less
>in the late 80's than in was in the 50's, and I don't even want to
>talk about the 40's. The USSR went bankrupt because their ideology
>forced them to stay with a inefficient and corrupt economic
>system that had no self correcting mechanism, so it kept getting
>worse. We can't take credit, it collapsed from within.
Though not specifically Star Wars, I think the arms race had a lot
to do with it.
One of the "straws" (the backbreaking kind) may have been the Gulf
War.
The former Soviets use to make much of their hard currency by
selling weapons, and after the Gulf War it was apparent that Soviet
weapons were no match for their western counterparts.
Brian
Member:
Extropy Institute, www.extropy.org
National Rifle Association, www.nra.org, 1.800.672.3888
SBC/Ameritech Data Center Chicago, IL, Local 134 I.B.E.W
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