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To: O.C. - Old Cracker; anonymoussierra
Please list some of Pope John Paul II's, or for that matter the Vatican's, accomplishments that have resulted in freedom for formerly oppressed peoples.

The Cold War was a team effort, but the Pope was instrumental in communicating much of the revolutionary ideas against Soviet bloc regimes under the guise of religious business. Poland, Czchekosolvakia, Hungary, the Baltic states, and even much of the former Yugoslavia are free today in part because of Catholic interference within the Soviet empire. I would imagine that the Pope cooperated with Eastern Orthodox churches in this effort within Russia, as well.

Perhaps you need an extended history lesson about the fall of the Soviet empire from within. I suggest you do some of your own research.

58 posted on 12/19/2004 3:31:07 PM PST by risk
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To: risk
You obviously know more than the historians who have given the lion's share of the credit to the sustained military buildup during Ronald Reagan's two terms in the White House. The economic burden brought on by the unrelenting arms race is what collapsed the USSR's house of cards and nothing else.

When you were a child, if daddy had allowed you to hit the tree he was felling with your little toy hammer, you might tell yourself that you had a part in the process but that wouldn't make it so. The same holds true with the Vatican's intrusion into world politics, while it's a nuisance and entirely ineffectual, no one wants to be the one to hurt the child's feelings.

65 posted on 12/19/2004 3:48:25 PM PST by O.C. - Old Cracker (When the cracker gets old, you wind up with Old Cracker. - O.C.)
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