In the context, of course, the U.S. had just finished "losing" the Vietnam War, and the military (so I've been told) was back on its heels, certainly unwilling to bring some true muscle to bear on Chile. And that whole Communist thing was goin' full bloom too. You guys were alive. Give me a bit more backdrop on this. I don't like the idea of Ruskies bringing nuclear material into London, and I certainly don't like the idea of a Chilean Dictator — regardless of whether the U.S. does or doesn't support him — blowing people up in MY nation's capital.
So like I said, now's the time to set me straight, or add to what I've already set down.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
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3 comments:
I understand that my enemy's enemy is my friend (politically at least), but we have enough Americans whacking other Americans within our borders. We don't need South Americans doing it too. Unless, of course, some of our own D.C.'ists were in on it — I'm almost certain of that.
But MFT you do realize that foreigners whacking folks on some sort of contract hit has a very long tradition here? Starting in the 1920s, the Soviet Union commissioned multiple murders here in the States, before WWII focussing on "dissidents" or on yankee communists who were causing problems in establishing the party line within the american communist party. After WWII extending to whacks on foes of communism, as well. There is also, of course, that huge question mark as to JFK. But the Soviet Union is obvious. As was Nazi Germany. So let me just list some political hits since I was no longer a mer pup. Both Iran and Iraq carried out a significant number of assassinations here in the USA, targeting refugees from the Baath and the Islamic government. Syria and Libya ditto. Also, the Soviet Union, Romania under Ceausescu [one was a prof shot through the head in the Divinit School at University of Chicago when I was there] Castro's Cuba (up to today), the PRC, Taiwan under the old KMT dictatorship [in the days of chiang kai shek and then his son], a large number targeted by the Saudis and other IM groups, either for dissidence or for becoming to prominent in "westernizing" Islam [for example, the Imam of the mosque in Denver, gunned down by Whahabis in th 1980s for the "crime" of allowing men and women to participate together in worship], a very large number targeted by druglords and government officials associated with drugs or other smuggling into this country, and the list of targeted dead here includes FBI agents, Judges, and government prosecutors. And this is just a sample, MFT. In other words, if you are in a mood to get into a high dudgeon over foreigners slinging their shit, at us or each other, in our home, then there has been very much such shit, deserving high dudgeon, for a very long time.
Now, as for Pinochet. Yes, he carried out a hit on Letelier (?) [and there may have been others I did not know about]. Pinochet was a genuine Latin dictator, and he did kill enemies, in the thousands. What was very peculiar about Pinochet, and I use that word precisely in that I cannot think of any other Latin dictator who behaved similarly in this regard [although there may have been some others] , is [a] instead of seeing power as license to make his nation into the plaything for his cohorts [as both Red, e.g Castro, Chavez, Trujillo, or Brown, e.g Peron, Noriega, or Portez-Diaz, socialists did with full gusto], he consciously set out to bring in some of the world's top economists to establish the foundation for a materially healthy society. It is no accident at all that in the last three decades Chile has been the one vibrant economy in a sea of crap. That was a peculiar thing to do in a world of Caudillos, but was especially peculiar is that he then set up the transition to democracy, and voluntarily, without any armed threat to coerce him, surrendered power so that democracy could supplant his rule. Which it did, and which has lasted up to now [again, a rarity in a continent far more politically comfortable with Presidents for Life, it seems, than the prospect of getting voted out of office. As the fortunes of democracy waxed, and now as they wane, in Latin America, Chile has been in my lifetime the one true success. And this was due to Pinochet, and no one else. Certainly not Allende, who was busy importing Soviet and East German forces to organize that brilliant and radiant future which would no longer need any stinking elections. Like most of Pepe's favorite "statesmen", free elections were really needed just one time. After that, the People having won, why give license to counterrevolutionary elements?
So, MFT, you can blast the corpse of Pinochet all you want for having been a dictator and a man capable of murder. That he was. But then you should also wonder at what he also was, the dictator who volunteered to leave power so a genuine democracy could grow, and who left his nation far wealthier and freer than how he found it. I don't think we may ever see the likes of him again, although the hordes of strongmen who were good solid pepean run of the mill strongmen will ever flourish, it seems.
That, I think, was AIs point. Condemn Pinochet, sure,, but then have the clear eye to see, and the courage to praise, all the good he brought. And if you don't think he did, sojourn a while in Chile, and then do so in Venezuela, or Cuba, or Peru, or Nicaragua, or Mexico [and many other places in Gringo Hating Country] and simply let the contrast be something you experience for yourself.
if you are in a mood to get into a high dudgeon over foreigners slinging their shit, at us or each other, in our home, then there has been very much such shit, deserving high dudgeon, for a very long time.
Of course, I don't remember commenting on the last three decades of Chile's domestic affairs. I simply don't like the idea of assassinations (a word with Islamic conception) being ordered from other parts of the world, and then carried out in the U.S. Call me a fucking idealist, and that's what it is: an ideal that people should feel SAFE to speak their mind in this goddamned country, no matter what the ideological stripe. I know foreigners have been whacking people left and right in the U.S. of A., but that still doesn't make it right. I guess I should have been a bit more clear about the 1st Amendment and such. That's why I get pissed about the whole KGB nuclear poisoning thing in London. Some dude is launching a verbal and written polemic against Putin, and he's dead a week later — that's discourse in what we tout as the Free World!?! Not in my book. Not at all. They'll have to kill me before I stop chanting that tune, but you know me, I'm kind of a fan of that silly David Hume, Adam Smith, Ben Franklin, etc...
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