ouch...that one will leave a mark.
Yeah ... poking yourself in the eye can do that.
Not to start a tangent but I would like to point out that the Soviet Union ended on a vote, not as a result of a foreign invasion and conquest.
It is preposterous to presume that the demise of the Soviet Union could have come about had not the Free World opposed its expansion with the threat -- and at times even the use -- of force. The Soviet Union fell because they were bankrupted by their attempts to maintain armed parity with the West; and also by the corrosive effects of their own totalitarian form of government, which could not compete with the infiltration of western culture.
Actual war threatened many times between the USSR and the West; that war did not occur, was due to the realization on both sides that a war would lead to unparalleled death and destruction.
This isn't actually a tangential discussion, either: like the Soviet Union, the Confederacy had expansionist aims, as did the north. Unlike in the Cold War, there would have been no serious compunction against going to war, as neither side had any concept at the time of what a total war would be like.