Gorbachev Says US Wasted Chance to Improve the World

[dazzleman]

Comments or thoughts?
____________________________________________

U.S. wasted chance to improve the world: Gorbachev
 
Oct 13, 12:07 PM (ET)

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.

Washington will in future have to act less on its own and get used to a position of diminished importance, he said.

"The Americans will have to understand that in future they will have to cooperate and make decisions jointly, instead of just always wanting to give orders," Gorbachev said.

He said the United States and other Western countries had missed an opportunity to make the world a better place after the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 ushered in the end of communism.

"At that point, the West focused more on its geopolitical interests," Gorbachev said, adding that Western countries had been more interested in cashing in on the "unbridled burst of globalization" that followed the end of the Cold War than in improving the international political climate.

[Gustaf]

There is some truth in it, though I wouldn't put it in such harsh terms.

[dazzleman]

There is some truth in it, though I wouldn't put it in such harsh terms.

I tend to agree.

There is some truth to what Gorbachev said.  I think the 1990s in many ways was a wasted decade.  Kind of like the 1920s.

Just as the 1930s were the bill we paid for the 1920s, the problems of the current decade are to some extent the result of the fact that we neglected a lot of developing problems in the previous decade.

Still, I don't accept Gorbachev's implication that any country is more responsible for helping others than they are for helping themselves.  Most chronic problems are, on some level, self-inflicted, and it's unrealistic to expect other people to sacrifice to deal with the self-inflicted problems of others.

I'd be interested to hear if Gorbachev has any specific suggestions as to what might have been done differently.  He could be turning into just another bitter old Jimmy Carter type -- time has passed him by, history judges him a failure in many respects, so he feels the need to lash out at the first available target in a vain attempt to burnish his own reputation.

[Michael Z]

There is some truth in it, though I wouldn't put it in such harsh terms.

I tend to agree.

There is some truth to what Gorbachev said.  I think the 1990s in many ways was a wasted decade.  Kind of like the 1920s.

Just as the 1930s were the bill we paid for the 1920s, the problems of the current decade are to some extent the result of the fact that we neglected a lot of developing problems in the previous decade.

Still, I don't accept Gorbachev's implication that any country is more responsible for helping others than they are for helping themselves.  Most chronic problems are, on some level, self-inflicted, and it's unrealistic to expect other people to sacrifice to deal with the self-inflicted problems of others.

I'd be interested to hear if Gorbachev has any specific suggestions as to what might have been done differently.  He could be turning into just another bitter old Jimmy Carter type -- time has passed him by, history judges him a failure in many respects, so he feels the need to lash out at the first available target in a vain attempt to burnish his own reputation.

I wouldn't put Gorbachev in the same category as Carter. In many eastern European countries, and Germany as well, Gorbachev is seen as a hero. In Russia it's a different story of course, where many people hold him personally responsible for the break-up of the Soviet Union and the subsequent economic malaise in Russia, but to be fair that was more or less inevitable and might even have occured earlier had it not been for Perestroika. The USSR was bound to collapse at some point in the 80s or 90s because its economic infrastructure was simply unsustainable, and Gorbachev has to be given credit for recognising the need for reform.

But I'm digressing. Point being, Gorbachev wasn't the failure Carter was, and it would be wrong to judge him as such. And I think he does have a point simply on the grounds that the US is the most influential nation in the world and right now (and certainly during the 90s) is/was probably the only country with the economic and diplomatic muscle to bring about positive change.

[dazzleman]

There is some truth in it, though I wouldn't put it in such harsh terms.

I tend to agree.

There is some truth to what Gorbachev said.  I think the 1990s in many ways was a wasted decade.  Kind of like the 1920s.

Just as the 1930s were the bill we paid for the 1920s, the problems of the current decade are to some extent the result of the fact that we neglected a lot of developing problems in the previous decade.

Still, I don't accept Gorbachev's implication that any country is more responsible for helping others than they are for helping themselves.  Most chronic problems are, on some level, self-inflicted, and it's unrealistic to expect other people to sacrifice to deal with the self-inflicted problems of others.

I'd be interested to hear if Gorbachev has any specific suggestions as to what might have been done differently.  He could be turning into just another bitter old Jimmy Carter type -- time has passed him by, history judges him a failure in many respects, so he feels the need to lash out at the first available target in a vain attempt to burnish his own reputation.

I wouldn't put Gorbachev in the same category as Carter. In many eastern European countries, and Germany as well, Gorbachev is seen as a hero. In Russia it's a different story of course, where many people hold him personally responsible for the break-up of the Soviet Union and the subsequent economic malaise in Russia, but to be fair that was more or less inevitable and might even have occured earlier had it not been for Perestroika. The USSR was bound to collapse at some point in the 80s or 90s because its economic infrastructure was simply unsustainable, and Gorbachev has to be given credit for recognising the need for reform.

But I'm digressing. Point being, Gorbachev wasn't the failure Carter was, and it would be wrong to judge him as such. And I think he does have a point simply on the grounds that the US is the most influential nation in the world and right now (and certainly during the 90s) is/was probably the only country with the economic and diplomatic muscle to bring about positive change.

I don't regard Gorbachev as a failure, from my point of view.  But in terms of his original goal, which was to save communism and keep the Soviet Union together, he was a failure.  But he was a hero to many people BECAUSE he failed at his original goal.

[© tweed]

Gorbachev never wanted to save communism, rather he wanted to turn the USSR into a capitalist superpower.

And I love how you turn this interview into 'Clinton blows', dazzleman.

[dazzleman]

Gorbachev never wanted to save communism, rather he wanted to turn the USSR into a capitalist superpower.

And I love how you turn this interview into 'Clinton blows', dazzleman.

I never mentioned Clinton. 

In any case, Clinton was a product of his times.  He was a perfect representative of his society at that point in time.  So it was not my intention to criticize Clinton.

[© tweed]

I think the 1990s in many ways was a wasted decade.

[dazzleman]

I think the 1990s in many ways was a wasted decade.

It was, in terms of foreign policy.  And that led to many of the problems we have today.

I don't say that as an indictment of Clinton.  I don't think another president of either party would necessarily have been better, given the public mood at the time.  But if you want to take it that way, so be it.  It seems a little defensive to me.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

i see it as somewhat accurate

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

While Bush Sr. and Clinton deserve some blame too, it's really Dubya who blew the most chances. Just to show that I'm not just being partisan here. Rwanda/Burundi was a blown chance to do something.

[dazzleman]

While Bush Sr. and Clinton deserve some blame too, it's really Dubya who blew the most chances. Just to show that I'm not just being partisan here. Rwanda/Burundi was a blown chance to do something.

What should we have done in Rwanda?

The American people were not wiling to take casualties in order to save people in Africa from being slaughtered.  It's that simple.  I don't fault Clinton at all for failing to intervene in Rwanda.  If he had intervened, it would have ended up as another Somalia.

Why don't the Europeans step up on matter like that?  We have, what, 6% of the world's population, and we're expected to deal with every military crisis.

[Angel of Death]

I don't know how much truth is in this, but I received something to the intent of Gorbachev's unpopularity being at least for some part the result of his anti-alcoholism policies during his reign.

[dazzleman]

I don't know how much truth is in this, but I received something to the intent of Gorbachev's unpopularity being at least for some part the result of his anti-alcoholism policies during his reign.

That was just the icing on the cake.  The overall problems were much bigger than that.  But Gorbachev did decide at some point that excessive drinking was hurting the Soviet economy, so he sought to crack down on it.  It was like putting a band-aid on a gaping wound, as were most of his reforms.