Quote:
Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
We spent a lot of money on defense even before Reagan was elected. The question I'm asking is, why do you think the relatively small (relative to the overall budget, not relative to the size of increases in other years) increases in spending under Reagan put "tremendous" pressure on the Soviet Union? Is there some sort of tipping point involved? If so, did Reagan know this, or was it dumb luck?
As for SDI, there were a number of good reasons for the Soviets to want SDI off the table. Doubtless cost is one. But something more needs to be shown to establish that this is what brought the empire down. We made the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan more expensive by supplying Stingers to the mujahedin, but was that the expense that made the difference? Without more, call me skeptical.
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My god. Didn't I post a speech by Gorby where he said the arms race help kill the USSR? Wait. Did I forget to post it? Is there no such thing as a point conceded here?
And "before Reagan?" So you think Carter sitting and watching the USSR do what it wanted helped? I get it. Carter being a complete apologist, let the USSR think it could invade Afghanistan w/o consequence. Carter made the USSR forget the Afghans might raise an issue. So Carter deserves the credit for the negative fallout of the Afghan war.
Okay.
