Replies

"The idea that the sinister hand of the Kremlin was behind groups like the Italian Red Brigades and even the Irish Republican Army revealed the deep sense of paranoia within political circles at the time."

I can't speak about the Red Brigades, but I know for a fact that the IRA was (and no doubt is) a communist organization. Whether the Soviets helped them or not, I do not know, but they were commies, plain and simple.

This author obviously thinks that Communism and its quest for world domination was some kind of a ha-ha joke. He no doubt thinks that about the Islamofacists too, and he would no doubt have thought it about silly old Hitler and Co.

Well laugh in the face of the millions of dead if you will, because you'll be crying when the forces of evil come for you, Mr. Neuman.

The factis, from the 60's to the late 80's, most all European and Mideastern terrorist groups recieved at least SOME support from the Kremlin, even if only to give us one more headache.

By the end of the '80s, however, that was beginning to dry up...the Russians realized that the Islamics were maniacs and that the Euros were slowly dying out on their own as they became dissolusioned.

After the fall of the Eastern Bloc, notice that in both Europe and Latin America, homegrown Terrorist groups have been either rolled up, shut down, or are moribund. Also, so-called "insurgencies" in Central America also weakened and died off.

After the Soviets fell, the only terr groups able to find signifigant funding and support were the Islamics, and to a much lesser extent, the IRA (sadly, theirs comes from the US, mostly from Irish-Americans with an incorrect, romantic view of the "boyos", and who know little or nothing of their communist ambitions).

The position of those who made descisions then (that the Soviets were primarily responsible for such destabilizing things as terrorism) was FAR from "paranoia", it was in fact correct. Unfortunately, after the smoke from the fall of the Soviets cleared, we were left with a President who had no idea or interest in what to do about Islamic terrorism, which essentially is all that was left.