Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mailrus!uflorida!novavax!proxftl!twwells!bill From: bill@twwells.uucp (T. William Wells) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: Soviet Access to Usenet Message-ID: <227@twwells.uucp> Date: 1 Dec 88 03:28:37 GMT References: <7649@well.UUCP> <8081@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <17651@gatech.edu> <8114@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <268@lloyd.camex.uucp> <213@twwells.uucp> <222@taniwha.UUCP> Reply-To: bill@twwells.UUCP (T. William Wells) Followup-To: talk.politics.misc Organization: None, Ft. Lauderdale Lines: 53 In article <222@taniwha.UUCP> michael@taniwha.UUCP (Michael Hamel) writes: : In article <213@twwells.uucp> bill@twwells.UUCP (T. William Wells) writes: : : >Mostly because many people believe, on the strength of the Soviet's : >own pronouncements of their intentions, that if they had the : >resources, they'd use those resources to make *real* war on us. : : and... : : >This is an old argument, which doesn't hold much water when one : >considers that the Soviets have chosen their paths because they want : >to run the world. (Their stated intention.) : : Uh huh. Could you possibly cite something where the Russians have made : these "intentions" clear in some recent statement? I thought that sort : rhetoric went out in the 1960's. I suppose that you could argue : that those communist fiends are thinking this all the time but won't : be silly enough to say it. I don't think thats a terribly convincing : view. There is a big gap between Leninist/Marxist theory and practice : in the USSR, and I believe they know that very well. Could you bring : yourself to believe that they might have changed in the last twenty : years? Let me see... You are saying: they used to say that they wanted to run the world, but they've stopped saying that recently. Therefore, I should no longer believe that this is their intention. Ok, the possibility does exist. How shall I test this hypothesis? Certainly not by taking their word for it. That means that I have to examine their political system. It is reasonable to believe that, if their system hasn't undergone fundamental change, then neither have their intentions. There have been some cosmetic changes; however, the evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of the hypothesis that their political system hasn't changed. Hence my conclusion that their intentions haven't changed. Note that follow-ups have been directed to talk.politics.misc since discussion of the evidence really belongs there. However, I don't read that group, so if you want to continue this discussion, use e-mail. : I'm afraid that citing what "many people believe" doesn't do : your argument much good... I think I may have mislead you. Sorry. The original question asked why people were paying attention to the cost of Usenet to the Soviets. My response, the one beginning "Mostly because", was intended to explain the presence of those people, not as demostration of the validity of their views. --- Bill {uunet|novavax}!proxftl!twwells!bill