U.S. squandered chance to improve the world -Gorbachev

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/international/ticker/detail/U_S_wasted_chance_to_improve_the_world_Gorbachev.html?siteSect=143&sid=7162693&cKey=1160757554000

BERLIN (Reuters) - Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who played a key role in ending the Cold War, said the United States had squandered an opportunity to improve global politics after the Cold War, a paper said on Friday.

In comments that were among the harshest he has made about the United States, Gorbachev compared U.S. foreign policy to one of the deadliest diseases on the planet -- AIDS.

"Today our American friends are suffering from an illness worse than AIDS. And I would say this is the victor's complex," Gorbachev was quoted as saying in an interview with the Netzzeitung.

Unable to extricate itself from its Cold War mentality, the United States was playing a dwindling role in world politics, while Russia, China, Brazil, Europe, India and Japan were becoming stronger, Gorbachev said.

North Korea, which said on Monday it had successfully completed a nuclear test, was an example. Only China and Russia were in a position to handle Pyongyang, he said.

[Vidar]

1. Gorbie has it right!

[razors edge]

2. Boeing, Raytheon and others

were not happy with their take from the peace dividend.

[wholetruth00]

3. Our first move was to make the world "capitalistic" instead of better.

there's the rub!

[madokie]

4. something the repukes can be happy about, not

the last 5 and 3/4ths years have been a disaster. in fact pretty much since the republican revolution. and in spite of the big dog. all it would have taken for this to not be true is working with a real leader Bill Clinton.

[acmavm]

5. There's not a lot of money to be made from peace. Not if you

specialize in death machines and bombs and bullets and defense systems.

Who cares about peace and trying to feed and give people health care and a dry clean warm place to live? Where's the profit in that?

[Skidmore]

6. In its zeal to canonize Reagan, it is to the detriment of the Rs that

they failed to realize that the Cold War wouldn't have ended without the contributions of a man of the stature of Gorbachev. He took some big risks and stepped out into uncharted territory. I credit him more than anything we did.