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Ear to the Ground

Gorbachev: Americans Have ‘Winner’s’ Disease

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Posted on Jul 12, 2006
Mikhail Gorbachev
From ABC News

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev

The disease is “worse than AIDS. It’s called the winner’s complex,” the former Soviet leader said in an ABC News interview. “You want an American-style democracy here [in Russia]. That will not work.”

  • Gorbachev railed against Cheney and Rumsfeld, calling them “hawks protecting the interests of the military — shallow people.”

  • ABC News:

    Mikhail Gorbachev is generally regarded as the man who broke down the “iron curtain” that separated the communist world from the West and thawed the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.

    Now, 15 years after a coup removed him from power and the Soviet Union dissolved, he has some stern words for the United States, whose relationship with Russia has soured lately.

    “We have made some mistakes,” he said, referring to recent attacks on Russia’s democracy. “So what? Please don’t put even more obstacles in our way. Do you really think you are smarter than we are?”

    The former general secretary of the Soviet Union Communist Party accused Americans of arrogance and trying to impose their way of life on other nations.

    “Americans have a severe disease — worse than AIDS. It’s called the winner’s complex,” he said. “You want an American-style democracy here. That will not work.”

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    By Chris M, July 13, 2006 at 9:17 pm #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    Gorby’s hit the nail on the head (although Putin’s verbal backslap to Dick Cheney was a nail in the coffin). America lately, like Burger King, wants to have it their way. That isn’t possible. What amazes me is when the so-called coalition forces invaded Iraq that none of them spoke fluent Arabic! How could they know what is going on if they can’t effectively communicate with the people they are “liberating”.

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    By felicity smith, July 13, 2006 at 12:18 pm #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    The Bush Administration, third-stringers who think they’re all-stars, are way out of their league in today’s World Series. Jim Hightower said of Mr. Bush, he was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple. To keep his delusion alive, he’s surrounded himself with people who will never challenge it. The results are self-evident.

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    By Druthers, July 13, 2006 at 3:36 am #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    “Shallow,” that is exactly the word.  There are all the others; arrogant, criminal, sleazy, underhanded and on and on but shallow says it all—about both character and strategy.  As Rumafeld said, “things happen.” Shallower than that you would be walking on dry land.

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    By Guitarsandmore, July 12, 2006 at 11:46 pm #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    There will be peace in the world when we all stop seeing each other as enemies in a global struggle for power and begin to consider we are all partners trying to survive together on space station Earth.

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    By JP, July 12, 2006 at 10:31 pm #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    Exactly—just someone else for the right to blow off as irrelevant.  It’s truly pathetic that we cannot listen to anyone’s opinion but our own.

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    By john, July 12, 2006 at 9:01 pm #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    Words of wisdom on America’s imperial hubris from Gorby that I’m sure will go in one ear and out the other of Bush and Cheney, the etam that can never be wrong even when they’re worng. Love their flip-flop on Gitmo.

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