Thank you for outlining your position. I understand that you have sympathy for victims of US aggressions.
OTOH I don't think that the evil done unto them makes them automatically good, or rather -
Have you ever lived in a communist country? I haven't but I sort-of have, too, since Germany has had experience with both. - I visited East Germany twice with the wall still there, and twice when it had just come down. I didn't like it. People who lived there didn't like it, and why did the system collapse to begin with?
I have a friend you lives in England, and I know of the dire state British health care is in. I understand that it is tempting to admire Cuba's "freedom of health" in comparison. But that still doesn't make of it a "good example".
Eastern Germans are less satisfied with and less optimistic about their situation than those living in the states that made up the former West Germany. They are also less convinced about the virtues of democracy than their western counterparts -- with many believing that socialism is a good idea that just hasn't been implemented well in the past. Indeed, the biggest differences in the survey come when eastern and western respondents are asked to share their views on life in the former East Germany. The communist state gets far higher marks from those living in the east than from those in the west. A full 92 percent of 35- to 50-year-old eastern Germans believe that one of the greatest attributes of the former East Germany was its social safety net, with 47 percent of their children in the east believing the same thing. By contrast, only 26 percent of western youth and 48 percent of their parents expressed the view that East Germany had a strong social welfare system compared to today's. http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,516472,00.html
Indeed, the biggest differences in the survey come when eastern and western respondents are asked to share their views on life in the former East Germany. The communist state gets far higher marks from those living in the east than from those in the west. A full 92 percent of 35- to 50-year-old eastern Germans believe that one of the greatest attributes of the former East Germany was its social safety net, with 47 percent of their children in the east believing the same thing. By contrast, only 26 percent of western youth and 48 percent of their parents expressed the view that East Germany had a strong social welfare system compared to today's.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,516472,00.html
Of course there are problems with the UK health service (as there are even with the French system), partly due to underfunding for years and wasting billions on things like Trident. But in general it is very popular. The US system which leaves millions with no health insurance, and many with problems getting their claims paid. Cf. Krugman's "Conscience of a Liberal" for a serious discussion, and Moore's "Sicko" for a dramatic comparison. Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner - that I moved to Nice.
