An 11 17 95 Reuter Information Service newsstory headlined
Politics, not sex, is Indonesian Internet's concern
Absolutely. We designed it this way. One of the key ideas was to provide such governments with a choice between having their power structures erroded by democratic influences or to sink into technological obsolecence. The US govt. stands to do best from all this. Democratic govt.s in general will win. Those that will lose are those which attempt to stamp a political or cultural orthodoxy on their people. Communication is the greatest threat to tyranny. That is why all tyrannies must control communications. It is worth considering that when Stalin died he was considered the saviour of the country, even by those who should have known the truth. It was only afte Kruschev's speech to the closed session that the truth became known inside the party. Note that even those who were the victims of the oppression had believed that Stalin was a hero. "It is a mistake", "if only Stalin knew" yet Stalin knew all along and this was obvious to the outside observer. East Germany fell when the size of the defections became known within the country. It was clear that the regime was bankrupt and that people were voting with their feet. Cuba will not be brought down by sanctions, that policy has failed for thirty years and shows no signs of achieving anything. On the other hand the communist structures would probably be sewpt away in months were the US to admit defeat (thus acknowledging the Cuban peoples "victory") and start package tourist flights. Once it was in the interests of the nomenclatura to become capitalists they would change. South Africa was not brought down by sanctions per se, they had an effect because they demonstrated that the Western world did not accept the appartheid principles. South Africa tried to see itself as a part of the West and that was crucial to the apartheid mindset. Sanctions demonstrated that South Africa was not considered a friend or aly. Phill