The op is ostensibly a tribute, but how can it be considering where the world is now?
"An inspiration against nuclear arms" by John Tirman/Boston Globe October 30, 2007
RANDY FORSBERG, who died this month at age 64, left a remarkable legacy: She helped end the Cold War.
I thought Reagan did that.
That's what my MSM and government shoveled to me, anyway.
She spurred the massive social movement in the United States and Europe that convinced the superpowers - the United States and the Soviet Union - that they had to stand down from their nuclear rivalry.
And look where we are now?
Iran about to be bombed so Bush can fulfill his WWIII mission!
Quit clapping yourselves on the back and get to work!
In 1980, she invented the call to freeze the nuclear arms race, and this simple but compelling idea - essentially, a moratorium on new nuclear weapons as a prelude to gradual disarmament - became the rallying cry for millions of people sickened by the rush to develop and deploy new nuclear weapons and missiles, space weapons, stealth bombers, and all the other expensive, provocative gadgets of the arms industry.
And we have EVEN MORE of that stuff now -- with UNENDING WARS as far as the eye can see!!!
And war-spending is going to be HOW MUCH?
WTF is this piece, readers?
It's a eulogy; why is it on the ops page?
The nuclear freeze idea, and the citizens' campaign that galvanized the world to embrace it, gradually altered the opinions of the public and then the policy makers in the United States and elsewhere. In America, the quickly rising popularity of the freeze collided with the equal popularity of President Ronald Reagan, who accelerated the arms buildup in the early 1980s.
Given where we are at this point in time, October of 2007, how did she succeed?
She may have been a wonderful person, but SHE FAILED!!!
When Mikhail Gorbachev became the Soviet premier in 1985, he began a series of unilateral steps to demonstrate his willingness to end the nuclear rivalry, most policy and political experts in the United States were skeptical, and rejected his overtures.
But the public was increasingly adamant about ending the nuclear arms race, and they responded with cautious but unmistakable support for such disarmament measures.
So what?
We protest the wars, and you see where that has gotten the American people!
No further from the than we ever were!
Thanks, SHITBAG MEDIA!!!!!
Maybe if you had listened to the woman when she was alive, we wouldn't be in the position we are now!!!
Didn't you stinkfucks CHEERLEADER for this fucking INVASION?!
This sudden turnaround in US politics could be explained by one factor above all others - the public had become convinced, by the freeze movement particularly, that something substantial had to be done, and soon, to end the nuclear peril. The politicians, news media, and experts followed suit. A citizens' movement in Europe pressed this upon their governments, and this even spilled over to affect the Soviet establishment.
Well, we are AGAINST the WAR and FOR Ron Paul, but that doesn't seem to matter much, academic shit-shoveler!!!!!
It was an extraordinary victory for civil society, and Randy Forsberg was at its root. She wrote and spoke tirelessly on behalf of the freeze and similar proposals. She engaged policy makers, national security analysts, and reporters. She helped build an infrastructure of new think tanks and activist organizations. She spread the word to Europe and the Soviet Union. And she continued to agitate for nuclear disarmament after the Cold War (and the Soviet Union) ended.
While the Neo-Cons did the same thing and smote her cause!
Gimme a break!
Of course, the MSM was a bit better then!
Now it is TOTAL SHIT!!!!!
Above all, her exemplary life is a tribute to the power of an individual's capacity to change history. Her combination of knowledge, inventiveness, and persistence is itself a rarity. But Randy Forsberg proved it could be done, a glorious paragon of the better angels of our nature.
HA!!!!!!!!!!!!
Unless Ron Paul becomes president, that is a bunch of BULLSHIT!!!!!!
FEEL-GOOD BULLSHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
She may have been a wonderful person, but how can you call the Freeze Movement a success, you blind fool!?
Or are you just one more shit-promoting agent that I expect to find in my papers?
Individuals and the masses make a difference?
Then WHEN IS THE WAR OVER, shitter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
John Tirman is executive director and principal research scientist at the MIT Center for International Studies.
