Giuliani Wants a New Cold War

"Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani on Friday advocated a strong military build-up by the United States as a bulwark against the oil-rich Russian President Vladimir Putin and his increasing consolidation of power in the country," reports CNN Political Ticker.

Tell me, what good will a new Cold War do? I would venture to say it will do us no good. In fact, I believe only bad things can come from that. It's too bad that the Russians have to deal with a President that is "increasing consolidation of power," but what does that have to do with America and being the American President?

I like this whopper of a statement: "He justified his claim, explaining that a robust military was the primary reason behind the United States' success in the Cold War. Giuliani said U.S. and European demilitarization after the two World Wars was a mistake that contributed to the growth of Nazism and communism..."

First of all, we did not beat the Soviet Empire because we had the most nukes. The two primary reasons for the fall of the Soviet Union were (1) total economic collapse and (2) political independence movements.

Ludwig Von Mises predicted that socialism was doomed to failure...in 1922. The basic reason is that without a pricing system (i.e. free market supply and demand determining prices) there could be no rational economic calculation. Thus, a socialist economy was doomed to fail because no one would know where to allocate scarce resources.

Sure enough, economic downturns in the early 1990's, characterized by a 17% drop in GDP and hyperinflation, saw the end of the Soviet economic system.

Various political reasons were also factors in the collapse of the Soviet Empire. Gorbachev's glasnost, non-communist trade unions, and a plethora of independence movements undercut the centralized power of the communist leaders.

U.S. demilitarization caused the growth of Nazism and communism? What possibly could Mr. Giuliani mean? To begin with, the radical communists, or Bolsheviks, first gained control in the October Revolution of 1917. After that, Russia was ruled by local "worker's councils", or soviets, which were dominated by Bolsheviks. The radical communists would not officially establish the Soviet Union until 1922, when the Red Army defeated the monarchist/liberal White Army, but they still effectively controlled Russia up until that point.

As for the rise of Nazism, any student of history knows that the primary reason for the rise of Hitler and the Nazis was the widespread German opposition to the Versailles Treaty. Their nation was totally demilitarized and forced into bankruptcy by the terms of the Treaty. The global depression of the 1930's also left many Germans looking for a strong government to spring them from poverty.

These movements were established with no connection to the state of the American military. They were bound to keep growing, no matter how many weapons we had. Would attacking Russia and Germany have helped end communism and Nazism? I hardly think so; both countries were in distress and looking for a strong state to direct them. The worst thing we could have done is centralize the ire of those centralized states on us. All totalitarian regimes are looking for some kind of foreign bogeyman to help them control their citizens.

Rudy Giuliani has absolutely no historical knowledge. He does not even know commonly accepted historical truths. How is this man fit to be president?