Thank you Veterans!!!

[Spidey]

Commies will never take over the world…their cousins the socialists will. >grin<

[Tunnelcat]

Isaac, CUDA, are you sure that you do not have blinders on the eyes? Nothing else I can not explain your mindless fanatical patriotism.

Do they have mirrors in Russia?

Yes, they have those silly carnival ones that magnify one self's image.

I've got a question. Some person wrote a letter to the local paper recently and complained that when he thanked a couple of vets, they got mad at him for doing so. One WWII vet said that he'd been drafted, it wasn't his choice and that it was a horrible experience that didn't warrant any thanks. The other said that war sucked and we shouldn't even be thanking them for fighting stupid wars in the first place. What do you guys think of those vet's responses?

[Alter-Fox]

I think they're certainly justified... but until the day people stop fighting people, sometimes a country has to defend itself or its allies (which can amount to the same thing really) and when you're an economic superpower like the U.S., power-hungry despotic dictators tend to want that power for themselves. And sometimes there are less reasonable reasons for war than self-defense... somebody's doing the attacking after all.
It's a horrible job (more or less depending on who you are, probably), and I hate to admit that it's necessary... but unless the world is to fall into total chaos, it is necessary. Even if we had world peace every country would still have a military.

[Isaac]

Thank by default. If they don't like it they'll tell you...

[Sirius]

I think socialism is pretty much dead - few countries practice it anymore, and none with any significant share of the world economy. China is socialist but in name only, since it has a market economy with private ownership of the means of production in many cases. It's one of the most heavily controlled economies in the world, but it's still not entirely controlled by the government.

And sometimes there are less reasonable reasons for war than self-defense... somebody's doing the attacking after all.

This is probably the main reason most of the extant wars in the world are civil wars. Once something is recognized by the UN as an independent state, it becomes very hard for another power to get away with attacking it (though it certainly has happened a few times).

[Isaac]

If Russia is the greatest true socialist government then that's pretty sad. It's a pretty small economy. Texas and California put together dwarf the entire country of Russia.

[Sirius]

I don't think Russia is socialist either - for "Russian oligarch" being a thing if nothing else. Wikipedia dubs it a "federal semi-presidential constitutional republic", which is quite a mouthful... but from the (admittedly filtered) view you get from news, it seems to have a curious mix of economic capitalism and political authoritarianism going. Technically a democracy but with strong pro-incumbent influences.

There appear to be only four remaining countries that describe themselves as socialist states: China, Laos, Vietnam and Cuba. Apparently, all four of them started economic reforms during the 1980s that encouraged the development of private enterprise (which is contrary to the goals of pure socialism), though Cuba is still quite close to a planned economy (78% public 22% private in 2006, and businesses can't directly hire people, they have to pay the government to do it for them).

Either way, yeah, it hasn't had a good run. If Cuba ends up being the standard-bearer, well...