differing viewpoints welcome

Submitted by the Grand Infidel of Kaffiristan (Australia), Jun 9, 2012 at 06:40

Hi Ianus

While of course I don't mind you having a different viewpoint to my own on these subjects .it would be helpful if you could back up some of your assertions with facts . Case in point - "....Will you include or will you rather exclude the numbers of those who were made beggars and died en masse as a result of the neo-liberal regime change imposed in 1991 from "the numbers killed in Russia in teh 20th century" ?These numbers are as -if not even more - impressive as those of the 1930-ies and 1940-ies ".

So say Stalin was responsible for 20 million deaths - which 20 plus million have met similar fates in states of the former Soviet Union since 1991? If your assertion is in fact true - then international journalism has utterly failed us.

"neo-liberal regime change imposed in 1991 .."

Not quite with you . Who imposed regime change on the Soviet Union in 1991? As I recall - Gorbachev had quite a bit to do with it. And extra incentives Poland's Solidarity movement as well as the so-called 'Singing Revolution' of the Baltic States

"Don't take it as an anecdote but Jews in WWII in places like Warsaw, Sobibor, Vilnius and many a place in Estonia which your Estonian friends' fathers and grandfathers elected for their extermination died with the word "Long live Stalin!" in their mouth."

As I'm sure you know some Estonians fought with the Wehrmacht - and others with the Red Army - most of them they would have preferred neither to be occupying their country.

"but Jews in WWII ....died with the word "Long live Stalin!" in their mouth....Suggesting now that what they meant was "Long live 'that even bigger pig of a man - Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili' "

As you are aware - I made no specific mention about Jews in WW2 making any statements about Stalin or Hitler for that matter. You've brought this claim up.

What I did say was that Stalin was a pig of a man - I'm not the first person to say that. His immediate successor, Nikita Kruschev , thought worse - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Cult_of_Personality_and_Its_Consequences

"sounds a little disconcerting even though quite in keeping with a certain ideology you seem to be a lover of."

Which is? I can see faults in any system so pigeonholing my political viewpoint is even hard for me.

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