>>At what price? The unimaginably huge pile of cash (on both sides) was wasted on arms. And what's the result? Most of the people in the countries in transition are worse off than they were before, and most of the safety nets were dismantled with the old system. And the capitalism has lost competition, so it doesn't feel the urge to play nice with its people. Just watch where this goes. I'm not sure I like the direction toward all-power-to-huge-corporations.
>
>Well I guess I can see your point, but I don't think it all that bad. Yeah this is not a perfect world and certainly not a perfect country (USA), but its the one country that I know that the rest of the world depends on when thing get tough. For example, how much money did US contribute to the tsunami relief? - over 35 mil. How much did France contribute? - about 400K. Heck, there is an American individual (I forget his name) that contributed over 200K on his own.

One failure that capitalism and socialism share is that while 99.99% of their citizens may be good and honest people, neither system has good ways of preventing the 0.01% from running the whole show. In socialism, it was inevitable that anyone who knew how to play the game could climb up the ladder really fast, eliminating opponents and having a good ear for the party line du jour. Here, it's anyone who can look good on TV, have a good ear for corporate interests, and can collect campaign money. (OK, down from my soapbox)

As for the 35 mil, it was upped to 350 once it became obvious that it's miserably low compared to what Spain or Britain have given.

>I think in the transitional countries they don't know what it takes to be free. It take sacrfice and years/decades of nurturing. Freedom and individual pursuit of happiness come at a cost.

The propaganda machinery which sold the capitalism to the ex-socialist countries, quite curiousl, forgot to mention that. Yes, there was some talk about the loss of jobs during the first few years, but nobody mentioned that the first industries that will rise from the ashes of the old system will be narcotics, white slavery (aka prostitution), racketeering and general corruption. In my country, additionally, it was the fine art of political assasination and tight bonds between the government, mafia and security forces.

>God bless us all in 2005....

If you believe that helps.