Could the USSR have stabilized the Middle East?

[Mechaghostman2]

I have no idea where to put this thread, history or politics, so it's going in the off topic. Anyways...

Could the USSR have stabilized the Middle East? Everyone would have been feed (even though not much) and everyone would have had a decent education (no matter how censored). Education usually exterminates radical thought. Not always, but usually. As well, with that form of socialism/communism, you get atheism. This would mean that there would be no radical religion stoning women to death for being raped. In fact, women would be seen as equal. 

When comparing the USA to the USSR, there's no doubt that the USA is/was better. When comparing that kind of dictatorship to the kinds that are there now, and to how the people in these places are now, I think a USSR type of government would be better. There would no longer be ignorant goat herders killing and mutilating women, and you'd have a country educated enough to go to the moon.

I understand that allowing the USSR to get their hands on the oil fields would have spelled certain doom for everyone else while giving the socialist/communist countries much more money, meaning it'd be harder to bankrupt them, but it might have ended up better for the world if we allowed the middle east to be conquered by the Russians. That system still would have fallen anyways, eventually.

[Minimalist]

You mean the way they stabilized Afghanistan?

[dyresand]

Put in the right person in charge make the locals piss and shit themselves for days weeks months years on end
sure why not.

[Minimalist]

Someone like Saddam Hussein?

Oh, wait.

[Mechaghostman2]

Someone like Saddam Hussein?

Oh, wait.

Saddam was a Fascist, not a Socialist. There is a HUGE difference between those two. The only similarity is that both are dictatorships.

[Mechaghostman2]

You mean the way they stabilized Afghanistan?

They couldn't stabilize Afghanistan because America intervened, giving Osama Bin Laden billions in aid and CIA training. As well as radicalizing the bunch. Yep, we still haven't learned anything, because to this day we keep trying to use radical Muslims to fight our enemies, and it always backfires.

[Mechaghostman2]

Put in the right person in charge make the locals piss and shit themselves for days weeks months years on end
sure why not.

They already do that with the dictators there now, some of them we put in place.

[Minimalist]

giving Osama Bin Laden billions in aid and CIA training.

It seems we have lost the knack for "training" those people!

The Russkis fucked Afghanistan up to a fare-thee-well. Fuck them.  They're assholes, too.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Could the USSR have stabilized the Middle East?

Short answer, no.

Everyone would have been feed (even though not much)

That's gonna come as a shock to the millions who starved in the USSR under a succession of Five Year Plans.

and everyone would have had a decent education (no matter how censored).

So, a heavily censored education counts as 'decent'?

Education usually exterminates radical thought. Not always, but usually.

Beg to differ - history is chock-a-block with well-educated radicals.

As well, with that form of socialism/communism, you get atheism.

Don't equate an official government position for the religious views of the population. The notion that the USSR was an atheist country is just as false at the notion that the USA is a Christian one.

This would mean that there would be no radical religion stoning women to death for being raped.

No, it simply means that such stoning wouldn't be sanctioned by the government.

In fact, women would be seen as equal.

If you think there was gender equality in the USSR, you should study up.

When comparing the USA to the USSR, there's no doubt that the USA is/was better. When comparing that kind of dictatorship to the kinds that are there now, and to how the people in these places are now, I think a USSR type of government would be better. There would no longer be ignorant goat herders killing and mutilating women, and you'd have a country educated enough to go to the moon.

Awww....lookit how cute you are.

I understand that allowing the USSR to get their hands on the oil fields would have spelled certain doom for everyone else while giving the socialist/communist countries much more money, meaning it'd be harder to bankrupt them, but it might have ended up better for the world if we allowed the middle east to be conquered by the Russians. That system still would have fallen anyways, eventually.

OK, so your solution to unrest in the Middle East would be to have the SovUn conquer it, causing war on a large scale to free up the oil fields, devolving the world into chaos, while the eventual collapse of the USSR would return the Middle East to a state of instability?

While this is not the worst speculation I've ever read, it might well be in the top three.

Boru

[abaris]

They couldn't stabilize Afghanistan because America intervened, giving Osama Bin Laden billions in aid and CIA training. As well as radicalizing the bunch. Yep, we still haven't learned anything, because to this day we keep trying to use radical Muslims to fight our enemies, and it always backfires.

Look up Afghanistan's history. When was the last time any invader landed a success there? The Brits bloodied their noses there as early as 1879, without any other foreign power intervening. It's one of the countries with the biggest keep out sign on it's doors. The other would be Russia where invasions have been equally successful.

As for the Soviet Union being able to stabilize the region - only in keeping the lid on the kettle for a while longer. The problem aren't the last few decades, it's the last 6 centuries. Most of these countries moved from Ottoman colonialism to Western colonialism to dictatorships. A look on the map shows everyone that these aren't grown nations, but made up at some colonial office at London or Paris. Straight lines for borders, keeping an abundance of different ethnicities under one roof, forced over their heads. All with their own affiliations, religions and nationalistic desires. They never wanted to live together in what is now called Iraq, Syria or Lybia.