I suppose that Lenin, Stalin, Khruschev, and Brezhnev had
thought that the slavery, death, starvation, and torture
inherent in their rule were just wonderfully good things,

Slavery? I don't recall slavery being a part of the system. I thought that
was
us up until the civil war. Death? Did capitalism cure death? Starvation?
People
don't starve in other non-communist countries?


Come on, we are talking about all the atrocities under Lenin and Stalin.
People were treated as slaves of the state. Forced labor
Forced relocations, breakup of families, forced starvations.

If you wish to make a moral equivalency between the US, and
Russia (under Communism), I can't cure the blind.

Where did I make any such moral equivalency? We certainly were guilty of having
slavery. I don't think the Soviet Union was guilty of such. More people were
starving in Russia before communism than after. I am not defending communism
but I am not going to attack it with propaganda. I am not going to deny facts
that don't jive with my political ideals.



and that the freedom and high standard of living
here in the US were just about as bad an evil as anyone
could imagine..

Do you think the standard of living went down for the Russian working
class
under communism? Were the peasants enjoying an American level of freedom
and
standard of living when the Czars ruled Russia?

The issue at hand is good vs evil and the Cold War.
But, for wahtever it is worth, the Tsars sucked too.

You cannot simply trust a country out of the context of it's own history. The
Russian people did not turn communist becuase they decided it was time to be
evil.


Standard of living isn't the issue, either.
Good vs Evil.
I know just thinking about it might cause discomfort
in some people.

It does cause me tremendous discomfort when people decide that their political
or economic ideologies boil down to good vs. evil rather than a difference of
opinion. Communism vs. capitalism was not a struggle of good versus evil. It
was a struggle between economic systems. It seems that capitalism works better
in many ways and seems to be prefered by most people. That would include
myself. But it isn't about good vs. evil. It is about finding the economic
system that best serves the needs and desires of the people.