Naturally. But Russia leader's a little closer to the left, despite the ludicrous privatisation that went on the ninties... Stupid Stalin... He ruined Communism!

erm, how do you mean? I know he wasn't very good ( hence 'destalinization') but me ensure its survival for decades didn't he? in the face of hitler.

I reckon that, should he not have gone all psychopathic, Trotsky and Lenin (the two masterminds of the Russian Revolution) would have acheived a much better relation with the West, thus stopped Communism from looking like a world evil and allowed it to spread more around the world. Stalin made Communism into a world evil with his oppressive tactics, irrational and violent tendancies and his demented ways of treating opposition. He focused a little too much on enforcing law rather than actually implementing the great ideas of Trotsky and Lenin...

I agree, hardly helps you does it?

Not particularly

The man was actually schizophrenic and paranoid, so it lead to many an irrational decision and virtually resulted in his death XD Poor Trotsky...

agreed, a classic cartoon joke is a character sawing off a tree branch that he's sitting on, not so funny when someone is doing it to a country.

That's exactly it. Not only did he destroy confidence of his own leadership, he destroyed confidence in an almost totally benevolent political movement! It's depressing...

well it only is in theory, sadly human nature means it can never really be in practice

That's a valid point... As Stalin proved, I guess...

we should have our own political discussion show

We really should! It's only us two... We could incorpoate Mornington Crescent to liven it up, too XD

speaking of which...

and to try and be BOT... I think we're agreed no one who'se anything like bush should be aloud to even run for office, how can Kerry live with himself?

I don't know XD Then again, there was a lot of scandal in the US becaus all of the votes from Black males in some states were discounted, and they were all Democrat votes...

hang on, this isn't actually the bush topic we've gone for far off we've got them mixed up.

Bahaha XD OH well - the two topics are heavily linked anyway...

@Topic ( ) - notice how Mugabe has split the MDC? He's a clever man...

I think we said that a couple of pages ago

XD Well, we need to bring this back to topic!

But he's plotted it all so carefully - not only is he working the demise of his opponents party, he is doing it in such a way that it actually looks accidental and under the guise of peace-talks

hmm, yes, not much consolation though

No consolation at all

well it appears there is a deal after all. tsvangirai will be PM with mugabe as president. whether it'll mean anything is another matter.