LETTERS: MAYBE IT'S JUST A JOKE

To the editor:

Donn Miller's Nov. 6 letter seemed to (shockingly) prove that the totalitarian mindset is alive and well in Tamms, Ill. Mr. Miller expressed the view that the United States made a mistake in promoting the Soviet Union's pullout from Afghanistan a number of years ago.

Miller based his provocative and absurd argument on his apparent belief that Afghans (and all eastern Europeans?) were better off under Soviet domination. His evidence for this was a recent "60 Minutes" piece about an Islamic extremist group (the Taliban) currently calling the shots in Kabul.

There is no doubt that the Taliban (so-called Seekers of Wisdom) are treating people horribly, particularly women. And it is also true that in some places in eastern Europe (what was once called Yugoslavia) there has been a resurgence of ethnic hatreds and rivalries long suppressed by iron-fisted Soviet rule. But for Miller to make what Communist leaders once called a Great Leap Forward and evidently conclude that folks were better off behind the Soviet Iron Curtain is beyond mind-boggling. Miller, in all his naivete, writes that the Soviet Union was in Afghanistan "merely to foster and protect progressive forces there." Give me a break, Mr. Miller.

Freedom often brings difficult periods of adjustment, particularly for those who have never experienced it. But is the answer to these times of troubles a re-imposition of absolute, dictatorial control? Hardly.

The historical record speaks for itself. Hitler came to power after a brief and tragically failed experiment with freedom in German in the 1920s. Prior to that, the Communist revolution in Russia followed on the heels of a short-lived try at representative democracy. The result in both instances was years of totalitarian terror.

Maybe we should assume Miller was joking. After all, the thesis of the letter was reminiscent of what I thought was dated Soviet-style propaganda. I (wrongly?) assumed such diatribes had more or less been consigned to the dustbin of history, at least in most of the free world.

Miller as a Molotov of the Heartland? Surely not. Tell me your letter was an attempt at a joke, Donn, even a very sick one. I'll be relieved.

STEVE MOSLEY

Sikeston