20 Years Now, Where'd They Go?

I was reading this excellent article about the fall of the Berlin Wall, the 20th anniversary is set for next month, and felt amazed that it has been so long since it happened. The article reminded me of Germany before it became reunited. How Germany was essentially an armed camp that had people living between all of the kasernes. West Germany which was the size of Oregon had two US Corps two British Corps, a Belgian Corps and a Dutch Corps, and God knows how many German Corps. (A Corp is a military formation consisting of 2-5 divisions). In East Germany a country the size of Ohio, there were 215 Soviet divisions armed with the latest equipment, and ready to roll to the English Channel as soon as the order was given. It was the greatest place in the world to be stationed if you were a young officer wanting to do something important.
But I returned to Montana in 1987 to teach ROTC at the University of Montana, so my observations of the fall of the Berlin Wall were confined to watching it on television. You have to remember, that this was right after the massacre at Tianemen Squate, where the Army of the PRC had fired on the student demonstrators. I don't know why we accepted it, but I guess it was because we really couldn't do anything about it in any event. But it was also, that we recognized the inherent evil of the totalitarian socialist regimes that the survival of the state was the most important factor in any action.
When I watched the fall of the Wall, I was afraid that the East German government would revert to form and massacre their own people, just like the Chinese had. The other fear that I had was that the Soviet Union would regard the destruction of their client state as unacceptable, and roll their own forces as a diversion from the popular discontent. Luckily, neither happened.
Twenty years on seems to be pretty quick at my age. But there are somethings that are timeless. One of the things from the article come to mind in particular:

The hollowness of the communist ideology, its false promise of an omniscient state, was laid bare. Far from being omnipotent, its impotence was manifest in that moment of truth.

For those who believe in the omnipotence of any government, I would ask them to review the history of those states that tried to infiltrate all aspects of life, and note their abject failure.
Read the Whole Thing.