I think that in 1989 or so, when "the wall" came down, the world missed an opportunity to actually move toward world peace. Actually it was the US that missed the opportunity. In the face of the collapse of the USSR the US could have started a move to global disaramament. Wow.
I am not saying it could have been done in the next year or even the next decade but some far seeing president could have given a speech that went something like " We are embarked on a long term mission. It may take 50 years but that we know was the length of the cold war. We can easily allocate the next 50 years to wind down the threat of WMD, including nuclear. Starting today we are putting our armament programs on hold, we are moving away from Star Wars....." Add to this buying up Russian nukes, employing Russian scientists on a range of peaceful taks,.... Well you can see where this speech might have gone. It didn't. And that is the point. The US could have initiated a true movement if not to world peace, at least away from imminent annihilation. It didn't. Wonder why. Rather historians in 50 or 100 years (if there is a history to write) will wonder why. arthur -----Original Message----- From: Brad McCormick, Ed.D. [mailto:bradmcc@;cloud9.net] Sent: Saturday, October 19, 2002 7:45 PM To: Ray Evans Harrell Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: addendum Re: whose ghetto ? (Opportunities lost and found) Ray Evans Harrell wrote: [snip] > I lived through > the Cold War and saw Reagan blow his opportunity to dis-arm the Soviet Union [snip] Can you please elaborate on what you think Reagan could/should have done? I'm interested to see if there's something I have missed (i.e., been blinded to). -- Different topic: There is an interesting piece by Paul Krugman on the increasing disparity of wealth in the US since the 1970s, in Sunday's (20 Oct 02) NYT Magazine. Read it before it becomes a pay-for item on the website.... \brad mccormick -- Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16) Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21) <![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------------------------------------------- Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
