Quote:
Originally Posted by Comrade Joe
Well as you see the exports almost fourfold. And to say they were exporting grain at this time is criminal, i would tend to agree with, if it had not been for very particular circumstances. History proves Stalin to be right, what he thought "might" happen, did happen. And i dont believe there is any "might" about it. It was certainly going to happen. The capitalist world always tries to crush communism and socialism wherever it appears. The Soviets learned this very quickly in the civil war following the revolution, when capitalist troops were on Russian soil looking to install a capitalist regime.
Had they not prepared for this happening again the British would have folded pretty quickly without the USSR doing 90% of the fighting. There is every chance Europe would now be called something like 'Greater Germany'.
So i living in Britain have much to be thankful of concerning the grain exchanges, even if it did intensify the famine. It was a case of the ends justifying the means, no matter how evil the means look when evaluated on their own, without contemplation of the wider picture.
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By the early 30s 'socialism' was fairly secure in the USSR. The majority of the enemies Stalin had were of his own making. The invasion that Stalin foresaw didn't come for nearly another decade.
Whether or not Britain would have 'folded' is a matter for another thread but simply put, Hitler would never have been able to sustain and invasion of GB. His aim was always to move east, not west.
Regarding 'ends and means' I think we've come to a significant philosophical difference.
In my view, looking at the world in terms of ends and means almost always leads to more harm than good and is completely unacceptable as a form of justification.
For example, if we take the ends and means mind set and apply it to other countries - the murder of thousands of Chileans by the Pinochet regime was perfectly justifiable as it helped ensure economic and political stability - dropping thousands of Argintines out of a C130 into the South Atlantic was justifiable for the same reason - overthrowing a democratically elected president in Guatemala was justifiable as it ensured stability for United Fruit - this list can go on and on...
03-10-2008, 02:02 PM
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