Reply #13: An observation

[trezic]

This argument is a new take on an old theme : greedy arms manufacturers and international bankers create wars to make money. It was first seen in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, but has been seen since from the Nye Committee, CPUSA, the Committee of Concerned Asia Scholars, and those surrounding the America First movement.

Subduing al-Qaeda is a laudable goal. This group acts like a band of rabid dogs. One can negotiate with people who are at least quasi-rational, but not with zealots.

As for the 'ruling class' and the Cold War...
1920s USSR: 2-3 million dead of famine while the USSR was a net grain exporter

1930s Ukraine: 8(?) million dead of famine to 'punish' the kulaks, while, once again, the USSR was a net grain exporter

1935-38 USSR: the Great Terror, estimates of 3-5 million dead

1945-6 Vietnam: while Ho Chi Minh is in Paris for treaty talks, General Giap is busy murdering 10,000 non-Stalinist nationalists

1958-61 China: 30 million dead of famine in the Great Leap Backward

1965-76 China: the virtual destruction of Chinese society and at least hundreds of thousands killed in the Cultural Revolution

1970s Cambodia: 1-2 million dead thanks to the Khmer Rouge

1989 China: over 3000 dead at Tiananmen Square

1980s Ethopia: in order to subdue the Etrian rebels, Mengistu decides on a policy of deliberate famine; when the West attempts to aid, the grain is given to the army and the starving continue to die

Perhaps the initial opposition, in 1917 or so, to communism could be blamed on the elites. However, it became clear in a hurry exactly what a Soviet-dominated world could expect from such a system.